COL.  GEORGE  WASHINGTON  FLOWERS 
MEMORIAL  COLLECTION 


DUKE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
DURHAM,  N.  C. 


PRESENTED  BY 

W.  W.  FLOWERS 


Digitized  by 

the  Internet  Archive 

■ 

in  2015 

https://archive.org/details/vaughansfreedmen01vaug 


WALTER  R.  VAUGHAN, 

CHICAGO,  ILL. 

(See  Sketch  on  page  56.) 


VAUQHAN'S 

'Treedmen's  Pension 


Bill." 


BEING  AN  APPEAL  IN  BEHALF  OF  MEN 
RELEASED  FROM  SLAVERY. 


AMERICAN  FREEDMEN 

AND 

A  Rational  Proposition  to  Grant  Pensions 
TO  Persons  of  Color  Emancipated 
From  Slavery. 


W.  R.  VAUGHAN. 

AUTHOR, 

CHICAGO,  ILLLN^OIS. 


Bntered  According  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  Year  1891,  by 

W.  R.  VAUGHAN, 

OMAHA,  NEBRASKA, 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington,  D.  C. 


ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED. 


DEDICATED  TO 
W,  J.  Cornell,  the  brave  representative  in  the  halls  of  the 
American  Congress,  from  Nebraska,  who  dared  to  sa}^  that  the 
slave  of  a  century  is  entitled  to  financial  recognition  because  of 
former  wrongs.  To  him  it  is  dedicated  by  the  author  of  this 
book  and  also  the  Pension  Bill. 

By  his  friend, 

WALTER  R.  VAUGHAN. 


244177 


THE  CAPITOL,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C, 

Where  laws  have  been  made  and  slavery  endorsed  for  over  a  hun- 
dred years,  and  where  the  results  of  negro  labor  have  been  enjoyed, 
without  giving  compensation  therefor. 


PEEFAOE. 


In  approaching  a  work  that  I  deem  to  be  of  national  importance,  it  may 
be  a  duty  I  owe  to  my  countrymen,  whether  white  or  black,  to  say  that  I  have 
been  moved  in  the  direction  of  asking  the  Government  to  provide  pensions  for 
former  slaves  by  a  sense  of  duty  which  I  esteem  the  Government  to  owe  to 
men  who  have  been  the  unwilling  subjects  of  lawful  authority  adversely  to 
their  natural  right  of  personal  liberty.  The  people  made  free  by  Presidential 
Proclamation,  and  confirmed  in  their  freedom  by  amendments  to  the  Federal 
Constitution,  and  by  the  organic  laws  of  those  States  where  slavery  was  a 
recognized  institution  prior  to  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  have  certain  natural 
rights  that  neither  the  puffs  of  newspaper  writers  nor  the  whimsical  cant  of 
small  fry  politicians  can  oppress  into  obedient  silence.  The  fact  stands  forth 
in  historic  writ  that  an  enslaved  black  race  has  been  set  free  after  a  lifetime  of 
service  to  masters  not  of  its  own  choosing.  During  the  years  of  Negro  servi- 
tude colored  men,  women  and  children  have  been  rated  as  chattels  and  taxed 
as  such  for  the  exclusive  benefit  of  the  white  race.  Courts,  schools  and 
benevolent  institutions  have  been  established  and  maintained  upon  the  blood 
and  sweat  of  the  Negro  race.  The  cattle  upon  southern  plantations  returned 
less  money  into  the  public  treasury  for  the  maintenance  of  educational  institu- 
tions than  Negro  chattels  held  into  slavery  through  a  system  of  traditional 
wrong.  The  direct  beneficiaries  of  the  system  of  slavery  were  not  responsible 
for  a  wrong  entailed  upon  them.  Until  the  way  for  emancipation  was  opened, 
by  the  circumstances  of  war,  the  freedom  of  the  Africo-American  race  was 
nearly,  if  not  quite,  impracticable. 

The  vicissitude  of  civil  war  presented  a  gloomy  picture  in  ihe  history  of 
the  American  republic.  States  dissevered,  homes  divided  and  old-time  per- 
sonal friends  made  public  enemies,  are  but  a  few  of  the  wretched  features  of 
the  days  made  vivid  by  the  continuous  gun-powder  flashes  that  burst  upon  the 
eyes  of  an  amazed  people  from  Bull  Run  to  Appomattox — from  1861  to  1865. 
Amidst  the  din  and  clash  of  horrid  war  but  one  rainbow  of  heavenly  promise 
beamed  upon  the  American  people  as  a  result  of  the  collapse  of  the  Confeder- 
acy. A  harbinger  of  good  will  came  in  the  assured  freedom  of  the  previously 
condemned  slave.  Slowly  from  the  ruin  of  war  the  States  were  rehabilitated, 
and  took  their  places  as  members  of  the  Constitutional  Union.  At  evf3ry 
stage  of  reconstruction  the  freedom  of  the  Negro  was  made  more  certain,  and 
in  that  work  the  doom  of  slavery  was  forever  settled  upon  the  North  American 
continent. 

But  the  freedom  of  the  Negro  has  not  compensated  the  families  turned 
adrift  from  home  and  bade  to  work  for  personal  subsistence.  In  old  age,  and 
many  in  the  throes  of  poverty,  they  appeal  to  the  Government  that  made  them 
free  to  furnish  them  a  necessary  support.  The  Government  has  no  right  to 
convert  the  circumstances  of  their  freedom  into  a  condition  of  absolute  cruelty. 
If  the  saviors  of  a  nation  are  entitled  to  the  aid  of  the  Government,  surely  the 
wards  of  the  nation  are  worthy  of  practical  assistance. 


viii 


PREFACE. 


Be  just  to  the  blacks  of  the  days  of  slavery.  Their  recognition  as  citi- 
zens, worthy  of  compensation  for  past  errors  of  the  Government,  will  do  more 
to  elevate  the  fame  of  a  great  nation  that  dares  to  be  just,  even  at  a  late  hour, 
than  all  the  story  of  its  brilliant  achievements  in  arms.  The  glory  of  Amer- 
ican freedom  will  be  made  perfect  in  the  pension  of  the  surviving  slaves  of  the 
ante-bellum  period.  W.  R.  VAUGHAN. 

Omaha,  Neb.,  October  1,  1890. 


TO  THE  PEOPLE. 


Since  the  publication  of  the  first  edition  of  Vaughan's  Freedmen's  Pen- 
sion Bill  and  Plea  for  the  Old  Slave,  the  effort  in  behalf  of  the  right  has  had 
substantial  progress,  though  hampered  by  all  the  whims  and  obstacles  which 
usually  obstruct  a  work  of  reform.  The  disadvantage  of  undertaking  the 
right  in  the  face  of  prejudice  to  be  encountered  in  state,  in  church,  in  school 
and  college,  has  been  nearly  infioite;  but  the  sunlight  of  reason  has  shed  an 
occasional  glinting  of  hope  emerging  from  the  darkness  of  despair.  The  way 
is  at  length  open  for  a  better  showing  before  the  country;  still  the  task  in  hand 
is  almost  appalling.  For  a  man  of  great  wealth  the  accomplishment  of  a 
truly  humanitarian  work  of  right  and  justice  may  be  a  pleasurable  undertak- 
ing. But  when  the  labor  of  reform  falls  into  hands  not  filled  with  "the  root 
of  all  evil,"  the  task  assumed  is  one  presenting  direful  misgivings  at  every 
step.  But  a  great  work  must  and  will  succeed  in  spite  of  every  opposing 
difficulty. 

The  first  edition  of  10,000  copies  has  been  exhausted  at  great  loss  to  the 
author.  A  second  edition  is  ready  for  submission  to  the  public.  Much  labor 
and  expense  have  been  added,  so  that  readers  may  be  assured  of  the  earnest 
work  in  hand.  In  going  before  the  public  the  cost  and  toil  and  the  wear  and 
ttar  of  physical  and  mental  forces  were  not  overlooked.  Rebuffs  were 
expected,  and  have  been  abundant.  Discouragement  has  appeared  in  every 
possible  form.  White  men  have  frowned  and  combated,  while  many  influen- 
tial and  educated  Negroes  have  been  incredulous  and  doubtful.  Still  the  work 
has  made  progress,  and  it  will  not  be  allowed  to  flag.  The  rights  of  the  old 
slaves  must  be  recognized.  Strong  hands  have  been  laid  to  the  plow,  and 
there  will  be  no  turning  back. 

Chicago,  III.,  September  1,  1891.  W.  R.  VAUGHAN. 


VAUGHAN'S  PLEA  FOR  THE  OLD  SLAVES. 


The  work  of  history,  written  in  the  interest  of  the  races  of 
mankind,  has  been  sadly  deficient  in  its  efforts  to  do  justice 
between  the  various  elements  of  civilization.  In  surve3^ing  the 
field  of  universal  population  that  spreads  over  a  m^a-iad  of  climes, 
making  up  a  world,  it  must  be  apparent  to  the  interested  observer 
that  the  field  of  progress  has  been  disputed  from  the  beginning, 
only  to  be  acquired  in  the  end  b}'  those  elements  of  nationality 
which  secured  domination  here  and  there  hy  means  of  force.  The 
people  who  were  subdued  fell  into  despondenc}'  and  at  length  into 
slaver}" . 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  the  writer  to  delineate  the  advancement 
of  the  northern  races  that  made  progress  in  the  work  of  civiliza- 
tion, or  to  decry  the  lassitude  that  enveloped  the  people  of  warmer 
climates  who  eventuall}^  became  a  pre}"  to  their  more  vigorous 
neighbors.  The  recognition  of  might  in  making  right  the 
will  of  those  in  power  has  done  much  in  the  direction  of  giving 
tyrants  their  sway,  and  of  transmitting  their  authority  to  those 
who  may  arise  in  the  line  of  heredity.  Nations  have  been  born 
and  made  to  rule  simply  at  the  behest  of  adjacent  power.  Kings 
have  advanced  the  rules  of  kingdoms  by  placing  members  of  royal 
families  in  control  of  provinces  conquered  b}'  the  work  of  war. 

In  the  advancement  of  power  it  has  naturally  followed  that 
those  who  were  weak  fell  into  communities  by  themselves,  and 
they  became  the  prey  of  their  more  powerful  neighbors.  As  far 
as  they  could  they  resisted  predator}"  incursions  designed  to  make 
vassals  of  captives;  but  the  fact  is  indisputable  that  human 
slavery  was  born  of  captive  people  made  prisoners  from  the 
circumstance  of  war. 

Once  the  existence  of  human  slavery  had  gained  a  foothold 
within  the  domain  of  a  powerful  monarch,  it  was  an  easy  work  for 
the  navies  of  that  monarch  to  spread  the  institution  wherever 
there  was  a  demand  for  labor.  The  slave  trade  sprang  up  and 
flourished  at  the  will  of  potentates  whose  provinces  were  enrinched 
by  the  products  of  slave  labor. 

According  to  Chambers'  Encyclopedia,  which  states  the  case 
very  fairly,  the  negro  slavery  of  modern  times  was  a  sequel  to  the 


10 


VAUGHAN  S   PLEA  FOR  THE   OLD  SLAVES. 


discovery  of  America.  Before  that  discovery  African  negroes, 
who  were  but  races  of  savages,  enslaved  their  captives  taken  in 
war.  That  is  to  say,  a  successful  tribe  made  slaves  of  its  prisoners 
taken  from  an  unsuccessful  or  weaker  tribe.  The  Arabs,  who 
were  roving  bands  of  merchantmen,  made  a  regular  trade  in 
negroes  who  were  captives  of  warlike  expeditions.  After  the  dis- 
coveries of  Columbus,  and  those  who  followed  in  his  wake,  the  de- 
portation of  Africans  to  the  plantations  and  mines  of  the  New 
World  raised  the  value  of  captive  negroes  and  gave  to  them  a 
market  value.  Instead  of  putting  Ch,ptives  to  death,  as  had  been 
the  custom,  thenceforward  they  were  sold  into  slavery  and  shipped 
to  North  or  South  America  or  to  adjacent  islands.  The  Portugese, 
who  possessed  a  large  part  of  the  African  coast,  began  the  work  of 
importing  negro  slaves  to  America,  and  other  seafaring  nations 
quickly  followed  in  the  remunerative  trade.  England  furnished 
her  quota  of  merchants  and  merchant  ships  to  carry  on  a  business 
wherein  traders  made  fortunes.  No  less  than  300,000  slaves  were 
conve3^ed  under  the  British  flag  from  the  coast  of  Africa  between 
the  3^ears  1680  and  1700,  and  between  1700  and  1786  the  vast 
number  of  610,000  were  exported  from  Africa  to  the  Island  of 
Jamaica,  a  British  province,  to  say  nothing  of  the  vast  army 
thrust  upon  the  British  colonial  possessions  of  North  America. 

The  British  nation,  that  engaged  so  earnestl}^  in  the  work  of 
planting  slavery  on  the  soil  of  the  New  World,  took  an  early  part 
in  suppressing  the  African  slave  trade  and  also  in  the  work  of  eman- 
cipation. A  society  for  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade  was 
organized  in  London  in  1787.  The  parliamentary  leader  in  this 
great  work  of  humanity  was  William  Wilberforce,  who  occupied 
about  the  sa^ne  relation  to  the  British  parliament  of  a  century  ago 
that  William  E.  Gladstone  does  to  the  parliament  of  to-day.  The 
bill  presented  by  Wilberforce,  looking  to  the  abolition  of  the 
slave  trade,  failed  in  1791.  but  under  the  leadership  of  Mr. 
Fox  it  subsequently  became  a  law  and  was  made  operative 
after  January  1,  1808.  The  United  States  followed  Great 
Britain  in  the  suppression  of  the  slave  trade.  Other  countries 
joined  in  suppressing  the  traffic.  But  Englishmen  continued 
the  nefarious  work  for  a  number  of  years  under  the  protection  of 
the  flags  of  both  Spain  and  Portugal.  In  1811  the  British  parlia- 
ment, under  the  leadership  of  Lord  Brougham,  made  participation 
in  the  slave  trade  a  felony,  and  in  1824  it  was  declared  pirac}^, 
punishable  with  death. 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


11 


But  while  this  work  of  reform  had  been  spreading  over  the 
world  the  slave  traders  of  Great  Britain  had  succeeded  in  planting 
the  institution  of  slavery  upon  a  firm  basis  in  the  British  provinces 
of  North  America.  Hence  those  colonies  had  been  easily  made  the 
recipients  of  British  rape  upon  the  savage  tribes  along  the  coast  of 
Africa.  In  this  wa}^  American  colonists,  to  whom  large  grants  of 
land  had  been  made  in  Korth  America,  became  enriched  without 
severe  effort  on  the  part  of  the  grantees.  English  slavers  poured  a 
horde  of  African  captives  upon  the  American  colonies  and  com- 
pelled planters  to  bu}^  them  as  a  condition  of  British  protection. 
Id  1618  the  British  ship  Treasurer  was  engaged  in  the  slave  trade 
and  landed  African  negroes  from  the  mouth  of  the  Congo  river 
upon  the  banks  of  the  James.  The  following  year  a  Dutch  man- 
of-war,  sailing  under  commission  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  landed 
upon  the  coast  of  Virginia  a  cargo  of  14  negroes,  and  the  next 
season  a  cargo  of  39  souls  was  landed  at  Jamestown.  These  were 
placed  on  the  market  for  sale,  paj^able  in  tobacco,  which  seems  at 
that  time  to  have  been  the  currenc}^  of  the  realm.  An  able-bodied 
African,  slave  was  sold  for  60  pounds  of  tobacco,  and  the  pur- 
chasing planter  was  supposed  to  have  paid  the  full  value  of  the 
poor  negro's  body  and  soul  in  the  transfer. 

It  was,  perhaps,  fort}^  years  after  the  introduction  of  slavery 
into  Virginia  before  the  work  of  planting  involuntary  African 
servitude  upon  American  soil  was  countenanced  by  acts  of  the 
Virginia  colony.  In  1662  an  act  was  adopted  in  the  Colonial 
Assembl}^  of  Virginia  providing  that  slaves  might  be  held  as  sub- 
jects of  law.  Freviousl}^  to  December  14,  of  that  year,  slavery 
existed  without  legal  authority,  bu'o  the  sale  of  men  and  women, 
the  separation  of  families  and  the  helpless  condition  of  children 
born  in  slaver^^  induced  a  law  regulating  the  sale  of  slaves;  and 
perhaps  that  law  remains  unrepealed  and  in  effective  force  to-day, 
save  the  fact  that  subsequent  conditions  may  have  annulled  it. 

An  exhaustive  examination  fails  to  furnish  any  data  going  to 
show  that  Virginia  as  a  state  made  any  revocation  of  laws 
adopted  in  ante-revolutionary  da3^s  establishing  colonial  slavery. 
It  was  natural  that  olden  laws  should  be  accepted  as  part  of  the 
first  constitution  of  Virginia,  under  the  federal  system,  and  that 
slaver}^  should  have  been  recognized  as  a  state  institution. 

The  condition  of  African  slaver}^  existing  in  Virginia,  in 
pursuance  of  colonial  custom  and  law,  naturally  extended  into  the 
territorial  dependencies  of  Virginia,  and  might  have  remained  as 
an  institution  until  emancipation  came,  but  for  the  act  of  congress 


12 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


in  1787,  which  excluded  slavery  from  the  northwestern  territory 
ceded  by  Virginia  to  the  United  States. 

At  the  organization  of  the  Federal  Government  the  institution 
of  slavery  existed  in  all  of  the  original  thirteen  states.  It  was 
not  alone  in  the  states  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  that 
slavery  was  a  fixed  institution,  but  in  the  other  commonwealths, 
which  became  partners  of  the  South  in  resistance  to  the  tyranny 
of  King  George,  there  were  slaves  held  by  the  white  inhabitants 
under  authority  of  local  law.  By  virtue  of  the  first  federal  cen- 
sus, taken  in  pursuance  of  the  constitution  of  the  United  States, 
and  under  the  authority  of  George  Washington,  then  serving  the 
first  presidential  term  of  the  new  republic,  we  find  the  following 
slave  population  returned  in  1790 — just  one  hundred  years  ago: 


Connecticut   2,759 

Delaware     8,887 

Georgia   29,264 

Kentucky   11,830 

Maryland  103,036 

New  Hampshire   158 

New  Jersey   11,423 

New  York   21,324 

North  Carolina  100,572 

Pennsylvania  :  _   3,737 

Ehode  Island.   952 

South  Carolina  107,094 

Vermont   17 

Virginia  *  293,427 

Territory  south  of  Ohio  river   3,417 


Total   ......697,897 


It  is  thus  made  to  appear  that  the  people  of  the  Federal  States 
looked  upon  slavery  as  an  established  institution  at  the  incipiency 
of  our  Government,  to  be  regulated  with  respect  to  commerce 
abroad  and  domestic  security  at  home.  Two-thirds  of  a  million  of 
slave  people  were  recognized  as  a  part  of  the  people  of  the  Fed- 
eral Government.  From  that  daj^  until  the  first  proclamation  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  dated  September  22,  1862,  looking  to  the  eman- 
cipation of  the  colored  race  from  bondage,  the  existence  of  slavery 
as  a  national  institution  was  recognized  in  law,  and  by  the  admin- 
istration in  power  at  the  seat  of  the  general  government  as  a 
fixed  institution  of  the  new  republic.  The  Northern  States,  one 
after  another,  that  looked  upon  the  institution  of  slavery  in  1790 
as  existing  by  recognition  of  the  national  government,  adopted 
acts  of  gradual  emancipation  which  freed  them  from  the  stigma 


yaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slates.  13 

of  slaverj"  earl}^  in  the  nineteenth  century.  Yet  it  is  a  fact  that 
slaves  were  held  in  several  of  the  states  north  of  Mason  and 
Dixon's  line  as  late  as  1840. 

The  history  of  the  warfare  against  slavery  instituted  by 
William  Lloyd  Garrison,  Wendell  Phillips,  Gerritt  Smith,  Horace 
Greeley  and  others  of  the  old-time  abolition  leaders  goes  to  show 
that  they  never  contemplated  the  forcible  abolition  of  slavery. 
They  looked  upon  it  as  an  institution  fastened  upon  the  people  by 
ancient  colonial  law,  and  they  hoped  to  secure  emancipation  by 
making  the  institution  repulsive  to  those  who  held  slaves,  and  to 
appeal  to  their  sense  of  justice  for  the  obliteration  of  the  lines  that 
held  black  men  in  servitude . 

Even  as  late  as  August  22,  1862,  when  the  war  of  the  rebellion 
was  in  full  blast.  President  Lincoln  expressed  himself  to  Horace 
Greele}"  in  the  following  forcible  terms: 

My  paramount  object  is  to  save  the  Union  and  not  either  to  save  or 
destroy  slavery.  If  I  could  save  the  Union  without  freeing  any  slave  I 
would  do  it:  if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing  all  the  slaves  I  would  do  it;  and 
if  I  could  do  it  by  freeing  some  and  leaving  others  alone  I  would  also  do 
that.  "What  I  do  about  slavery  and  the  colored  race  I  do  because  I  believe 
it  helps  to  save  this  Union:  and  what  I  forbear  to  do,  I  forbear  because  I 
do  not  believe  it  would  help  to  save  the  Union. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  b}'  the  strongest  friends  of  the  colored 
race  the  question  involved  in  the  war  of  the  rebellion  did  not 
contemplate  the  release  of  the  slave  from  the  bondage  of  serfdom. 
The  idea  paramount  in  the  minds  of  the  great  men  of  the  earlj^ 
war  period  contemplated  no  freedom  for  the  slave,  but  merely  the 
making  of  him  an  instrument  in  the  suppression  of  an  armed 
rebellion  and  the  salvation  of  a  constitutional  union  of  the  states, 
without  regard  to  the  immediate  effect  which  the  saving  of  the 
Union  might  have  upon  the  status  of  the  negro.  All  men  in  high 
places  looked  upon  the  negro  as  an  unwilling  factor  in  the  govern- 
ment, forced  upon  the  states  by  ancient  British  rule;  and  in  sav- 
ing the  institutions  planted  upon  this  hemisphere  by  the  fathers  of 
the  republic  the  condition  of  the  negro  had  no  part  or  parcel  in 
the  consideration  of  the  men  who  sustained  Abraham  Lincoln 
during  the  early  days  of  the  rebellion.  The  circumstances  of 
emancipation  were  compelled  by  the  circumstances  of  war. 

It  is  known  and  admitted  that  President  Lincoln  had  in  con- 
templation, early  in  1861,  the  appointment  of  Stephen  A. 
Douglas  to  the  command  of  the  arm}-  of  the  L^nited  States.  Mr. 
Douglas  at  that  date  was  willing  to  have  slavery  extended  into 
free  territory  in  case  it  was  the  will  of  the  people;  which,  how- 


14  VATIGHAN^S  PLEA  FOR  THE  OLD  SLAVES. 

ever,  he  did  not  believe  to  prevail.  But  with  his  known  and 
declared  sentiments,  had  he  lived,  Mr.  Douglas  would  most  likely 
have  been  made  commander  of  the  Union  armies,  and  it  is  possible 
that  he  might  have  been  the  first  declarent  of  slavery  emancipation 
within  the  states.  The  circumstances  of  his  surroundings  would 
probably  have  pointed  to  him  the  line  of  duty  as  it  appeared  to 
Mr.  Lincoln  in  the  progress  of  a  carnage  which  finally  made  an 
enslaved  race  free. 

The  meager  incidents  in  the  career  of  African  slavery  already 
mentioned  are  sufficient  in  themselves  to  demonstrate  that  slavery 
was  planted  within  the  United  States  by  force,  and  was  continued 
under  authority  of  law  until  emancipation  was  promulgated  as  a 
measure  necessary  to  ensure  the  quelling  of  an  armed  rebellion. 
Emancipation  was  not  a  voluntary  tribute  to  freedom,  but  was 
extorted  by  the  circumstances  of  war,  as  a  measure  necessary  to 
o.verthrow  the  power  of  insurgents  against  constitutional  govern- 
ment. The  men  in  authority  at  the  time  civil  war  began  to  rage 
had  no  idea  of  making  use  of  the  negro  as  an  agent  in  conquering 
the  rebellion.  When  it  became  manifest  that  it  was  a  necessity 
to  make  use  of  all  the  means  which  God  and  nature  had  placed  at 
the  disposal  of  duly  constituted  authority,  in  order  that  armed 
resistance  against  the  government  might  be  suppressed,  then,  and 
only  then,  was  the  president  moved  to  make  a  proclamation  of 
freedom  to  southern  slaves.  The  person  is  not  living,  white  or 
black,  who  will  presume  to  assert  that  Abraham  Lincoln  was  not  a 
man  of  large  heart,  humane  impulses  and  an  earnest  friend  of 
liberty  to  all  mankind.  But  as  president  of  the  republic  he 
esteemed  it  his  first  duty  to  save  the  life  of  a  nation,  the  govern- 
ment whereof  had  been  committed  to  his  hands.  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
not  alone  in  this  view.  Cabinet  officers,  members  of  both  houses 
of  congress,  military  commanders  in  the  field,  and  in  truth  nearly 
all  the  inhabitants  of  the  loj^al  states  accepted  the  same  line  of 
policy  as  the  governing  principle  of  the  war  into  which  the  nation 
had  suddenly  plunged. 

In  the  progress  of  the  war  it  became  the  policy  of  the  United 
States  Government  to  enlist  the. services  of  negro  soldiers  as  an 
element  directly  interested  in  measures  which,  in  the  end,  led  to 
the  freedom  of  an  enslaved  race.  It  is  perhaps  true  that  the  Con- 
federacy took  the  first  step  in  the  direction  of  employing  colored 
troops,  and  in  this  way  set  a  wholesome  example  to  the  Federal 
authorities.  Whether  the  enlistment  of  colored  troops  for  service 
in  the  Southern  army  contemplated  the  freedom  of  such  soldiers 


VAUGHAN^S  PLEA  FOR  THE   OLD  SLAVES 


15 


does  not  certainly  appear.  Had  such  freedom  been  promised,  it  is 
possible  that  a  formidable  army  of  blacks  might  have  been  re- 
cruited for  the  army  of  the  South.  But  that  negro  soldiers  were 
emploj^ed  is  pretty  well  established.  The  Charleston  Mercury 
noted,  within  a  fortnight  after  the  attack  upon  Fort.  Sumter  had 
been  made,  that  several  companies  of  the  Third  and  Fourth  regi- 
ments of  Georgia  had  marched  for  the  theater  of  war  in  Virginia, 
and  that  accompanying  them  was  one  company  of  negro  soldiers  t 
from  Nashville,  Tenn.,  Avhich  had  offered  its  services  to  the  Con- 
federate States  and  had  been  accepted.  In  the  earl}^  part  of  Ma}^ 
1861,  a  citizens'  committee  of  safety  at  Memphis  took  steps  to  au- 
thorize C.  Deloach,  D.  R.  Cook  and  William  B.  Greenlaw  "  to 
organize  a  volunteer  compan}"  com]30sed  of  our  patriotic  free  men 
of  color,  of  the  cit}^  of  Memphis,  for  the  service  of  our  common 
defense."  It  does  not  appear  that  negroes  held  as  slaves  were 
asked  to  join  the  enterprise.  Later  on,  Februar}^  9,  1862,  there 
was  a  grand  militar}^  review  held  in  the  cit}^  of  New  Orleans  at 
which,  according  to  the  Dail}-  Pica3'une,  there  were  included 
* '  companies  of  free  colored  men ,  all  very  well  drilled  and  com- 
fortabl}^  uniformed."  It  was  further  stated  that  these  negro 
soldiers  had  supplied  themselves  with  arms  without  regard  to  cost 
or  trouble,  unaided  by  the  Confederate  Government.  On  this 
occasion  ' '  a  fine  war  flag  ' '  was  presented  to  Captain  Jordan  of  the 
colored  troops,  and  in  response  to  the  presentation  the  colored 
commandant  delivered  "  one  of  his  most  felicitous  speeches."  It 
was  not  stated  whether  the  ' '  fine  war  flag  ' '  was  ornamented  with 
the  stars  and  bars  or  whether  it  was  of  some  other  design.  It  ij 
also  historically  narrated  that  about  Februaiy,  1862,  able-bodied 
colored  men — contrabands,  so-called — were  taken  to  Richmond, 
formed  into  regiments  and  armed  for  the  defense  of  that  cit}-.  It 
is  also  known  that  Gen.  Mansfield  Lovell  and  Gen.  Ruggles,  in 
command  at  New  Orleans  prior  to  the  advance  of  Gen .  Benjamin 
F.  Butler  upon  that  cit}-,  from  the  direction  of  the  gulf,  had  in 
their  command  a  regiment  composed  of  fourteen  hundred  men  of 
color . 

The  fact  of  the  enlistment  of  colored  soldiers  in  the  service  of 
the  insurrectionary  states  veiy  probabl}^  had  its  influence  upon  the 
authorities  at  Washington,  inducing  the  acceptance  of  negro 
troops  in  the  Union  service.  At  the  beginning  Mr.  Lincoln  hesi- 
tated in  respect  to  his  duty  in  placing  arms  in  the  hands  of 
negroes.  Others  doubted  the  prudence  of  such  a  step,  and  it  was 
the  logic  of  circumstances  rather  than  of  deliberate  design  which 


16 


VAUGHAN*S  PLEA  FOR  THE  OLD  SLAVES. 


opened  the  way  for  the  formation  of  negro  regiments  in  support 
of  the  Union  cause.  In  1862  Secretary  of  War  Cameron  author- 
ized Gen.  W.  T.  Sherman  to  accept  the  services  of  "loyal  per- 
sons ' '  who  desired  to  aid  in  the  suppression  of  rebellion  in  the 
vicinity  of  Port  Royal.  Gen.  David  Hunter  very  soon  succeeded 
Gen.  Sherman,  and  he  found  the  authority  given  his  predecessor 
among  the  military  papers  upon  the  files  of  his  office.  Gen. 
Hunter  interpreted  the  authority  to  accept  the  services  of  "  loyal 
persons  "  in  a  liberal  spirit,  and  thereupon  proceeded  to  enroll  a 
regiment  of  blacks,  which  he  officered  with  wliite  men  of  recog- 
nized military  skill  and  ability.  The  arming  of  the  slaves  in 
South  Carolina  opened  a  new  feature  in  the  progress  of  the  war 
and  occasioned  manifest  surprise  in  the  halls  of  congress.  The 
Hon.  Charles  A.  Wicklilfe,  of  Kentucky,  introduced  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  a  resolution  of  inquiry  respecting  the  action  of 
Gen.  Ilunter,  which  called  forth  a  formal  correspondence  between 
Edwin  M.  Stanton,  the  successor  of  Mr.  Cameron  in  the  War  De- 
partment, and  the  Hon.  Galusha  A.  Grow,  then  Speaker  of  the 
House.  The  conditions  which  prompted  the  course  of  Gen. 
Hunter  were  fully  stated  and  the  action  of  the  General  was  fully 
approved.  In  regard  to  the  effectiveness  of  the  colored  troops 
thus  brought  into  the  service  of  the  Union  army,  Gen.  Hunter 
spoke  in  the  highest  terms  of  praise.  He  said:  "The  experiment 
oi  arming  the  blacks,  so  far  as  I  have  made  it,  has  been  a  com- 
plete and  even  a  marvelous  success.  They  are  sober,  docile,  at- 
tentive and  enthusiastic,  displaying  great  natural  capacities  for 
acquiring  the  duties  of  the  soldier.  They  are  eager  beyond  all 
things  to  take  the  field  and  be  led  into  action,  and  it  is  the  unani- 
mous opinion  of  the  officers  who  have  had  charge  of  them  that,  in 
the  peculiarities  of  this  climate  and  country,  they  will  prove  in- 
valuable auxiliaries,  fully  equal  to  similar  regiments  so  long 
and  successfully  used  by  the  British  authorities  in  the  West  India 
Islands."  Gen.  Hunter  concluded  his  answer  to  Mr.  Wickliffe's 
congressional  resolution  by  saying  that  he  hoped  to  be  able  to 
present  to  the  Government  from  forty-eight  to  fifty  thousand  of 
hardy,  devoted  negro  soldiers  by  the  next  autumn.  This  fondly 
expressed  hope  was  not  realized,  but  of  the  gallant  black  soldiers 
who  did  enlist  under  the  banner  of  the  Union  there  were  none  who 
failed  to  do  valiant  service  for  a  restored  Union  and  in  the  cause 
of  the  freedom  of  their  race . 

When  Gen.  Hunter's  communication  to  Secretary  Stanton  was 
read  before  the  House  of  Representatives,  Congressman  Dunlap 


YAUGHAX  S  PLEA  FOR  THE   OLD  SLAVES. 


17 


offered  a  resolution  of  censure  because  of  the  sentiments  expressed 
therein;  but  the  resohition  was  not  then  acted  upon,  and  reflection 
no  doubt  satisfied  Mr.  Dunlap  of  the  unwisdom  of  his  proposed 
censure.  At  least  he  did  not  again  call  the  attention  of  theHou*e 
to  the  subject.  AVhile  the  censure  was  not  voted,  the  important 
facts  narrated  b}'  the  distinguished  soldier  began  bearing  fruit  in 
an  unexpected  quarter.  Two  senators  of  the  United  States  called 
upon  President  Lincoln  and  proffered  to  him  the  services  of  two 
full}"  equipped  negro  regiments,  which  the  president  did  not  feel 
authorized  to  have  mustered  into  the  Union  service.  One  senator 
allowed  his  angry  passions  to  arise,  and  very  impudently  told  Mr. 
Lincoln  that  he  hoped  to  God  he  would  resign  from  the  chief 
magistrac}"  and  let  some  man  succeed  him  who  had  a  little  back- 
bone. The  same  senator  was  very  glad  to  assent  to  tlie  re-election 
of  Abraham  Lincoln  two  3'ears  later. 

A  careful  surve}^  of  the  difficulties  that  surrounded  the  intro- 
duction of  tlie  despised  1;)lackman  into  the  ofhce  of  a  soldier  gives, 
even  at  this  late  day,  some  idea  of  the  x^rejudices  which  had  to  be 
overcome  in  order  to  save  the  union  of  the  states  from  threatened 
dissolution.  Thousands  were  precipitate  and  impracticable,  and 
other  thousands  were  diffident  and  impracticable.  But  in  the 
meantime  the  negro  stood  ready  to  do  his  part;  and  although  some 
statesmen  were  doubtful  and  hesitating,  and  others  importunate 
and  exacting,  the  sulijects  of  solicitude  were  preparing  to  strike 
for  the  x^Grpetuity  of  the  government  of  their  devotion.  A 
thousand  enthusiastic  lovers  of  their  own  race,  as  well  as  of  the 
flag  they  had  known  as  the  emblem  of  freedom  to  the  white  race, 
stood  banded  together  in  pursuance  of  Gen.  Hunter's  recognition 
of  their  right  of  enlistment;  and  the}^  succeeded  in  finding  their 
wa}"  into  tlie  general  military  service  under  an  emergency.  Sec- 
retary Stanton  wrote  Gen.  Saxton  saying  that  "in  view  of  jouv 
command  and  the  inability  of  the  government  at  the  present  time 
to  increase  it  in  order  to  guard  the  plantations  and  settlements 
from  invasion,  and  to  protect  the  inhabitants  thereof  from  cap- 
tivity and  in^^asion  by  the  enemy,  you  are  authorized  to  arm, 
uniform,  and  equip  and  receive  in.o  the  service  of  the  United 
States  such  number  of  volunteers  of  African  descent  as  you  may 
deem  expedient,  not  exceeding  five  thousand,"  etc.  That  order 
enabled  Gen.  Saxton  to  get  his  waiting  regiments  into  service.  It 
enabled  him  to  organize  five  other  regiments.  It  deprived  the 
rebellion  of  the  direct  support  of  the  men  who  might  otherwise 
have  cultivated  the  fields  and  raised  crops  for  the  sustenance  of 


18 


VAUGHAN  S   PLEA  FOR  THE   OLD  SLAVES. 


southern  armies.  It  opened  a  new  field  for  the  negro,  and  charged 
him  with  a  grand  importance  in  crippling  the  power  of  the  white 
master,  and  enabling  the  black  serf  to  do  his  part  in  bringing  an 
armed  rebellion  to  final  confusion  and  ultimate  defeat.  President 
Lincoln  withdrew  reluctantly  from  the  position  he  originalh^ 
assumed  in  opposition  to  the  equipment  of  negro  troops,  and 
finally  gave  countenance  to  orders  issued  from  the  war  department 
authorizing  the  formation  of  negro  regiments. 

As  a  matter  of  history,  it  may  be  stated  that  before  the  date 
of  accepting  distinctive  negro  companies  or  regiments  in  the 
service  of  the  Union  arm}^,  many  colored  men  were  enlisted  in  the 
service  in  their  individual  capacit}^,  notabl}^  in  eastern  regiments. 
The  state  of  Massachusetts,  for  instance,  authorized  such  enlist- 
ments and  received  recruits  from  other  states  which  were  credited 
upon  the  quota  of  enlistments  necessary  to  exempt  the  Old  Ba}^ 
State  from  the  provisions  of  the  draft  laws  enacted  by  Congress. 
Colored  volunteers  were  recruited  in  Indiana,  and  perhaps  in 
many  other  states,  and  sent  to  Massachusetts  in  order  that  they 
might  be  mustered  into  the  Union  service  without  objection  being 
raised  on  account  of  color.  It  has  never  been  learned  that  those 
soldiers  failed  to  prove  less  efficient,  resolute,  brave  and  daring 
than  the  most  courageous  and  valiant  of  the  white  enlisted  men . 

Throughout  the  South  it  was  found  that  negroes  flocked  in 
numbers  to  Union  encampments,  beyond  the  facilities  of  army 
officers  to  equip  them  for  military  service,  as  Union  troops  ad- 
vanced into  tlie  heart  of  the  Confederacy.  Those  who  had  been 
reared  in  the  extreme  South,  or  in  the  very  center  of  the  cotton 
belt,  manifested  an  intense  desire  to  take  up  arms  in  behalf  of  the 
Union  cause  far  in  excess  of  the  colored  element  along  the  border 
and  in  proximity  to  the  free  states.  It  required  months  of  war 
and  excitement  to  instill  into  the  minds  of  those  negroes,  far  re- 
moved from  contact  with  northern  men  and  northern  sentiment, 
the  fact  that  a  military  revolution  was  in  progress  that  must 
necessarily  terminate  in  a  marked  change  touching  their  political 
relations.  Once  convinced,  however,  of  the  truth,  the  negro 
proved  to  be  an  important  and  willing  factor  in  bringing  final 
success  to  the  Union  cause. 

As  early  as  the  month  of  June,  1862,  negroes  flocked  to  the 
encampment  of  Gen.  Phelps,  who  had  made  his  way  into  the  rural 
regions  of  Louisiana.  While  resting  from  the  fatigue  of  hurried 
marches  and  almost  continual  skirmish  fighting,  in  the  vicinit}^  of 
Carrollton,  the  General  found  his  camp  crowded  daily  with  fresh 


YArGHAX's   PLEA  FOR  THE   OLD  SLAVES. 


19 


fugitives  from  the  captivit}'  of  slaveiy.  He  could  not  support 
them  in  idleness,  and  a  sense  of  the  great  work  in  hand  forbade 
the  return  of  the  fugitives  to  the  possession  of  masters  from  Avhom 
they  had  escaped.  He  therefore  afforded  protection  to  such  as 
manifested  a  willingness  to  shoulder  a  musket  and  endure  the 
vicissitude  of  war  as  a  recompense  for  personal  libertv.  The  con- 
dition of  his  surroundings  was  made  known  offlciallv  by  Gen. 
French  to  Gen.  Butler,  who  was  then  in  command  at  New 
Orleans,  and  the  propriety  was  suggested  of  recommending  that 
the  cadet  graduates  from  AVest  Point  be  sent  into  the  South  to 
organize  and  discipline  negro  levies,  so  as  to  make  them  efficient 
soldiers  for  use  in  the  pending  war.  Ver}-^  clearl}^  Gen.  Butler  did 
not  like  the  suggestion.  He  advised  the  emplojnnent  of  "contra- 
bands," as  he  called  them,  for  fatigue  duty,  but  forbade  their  em- 
ployment in  the  capacity  of  soldiers.  In  writing  to  Gen.  Butler, 
under  date  of  Jul}^  31,  18G2,  it  will  be  found  that  Gen .  Phelps 
said:  "I  am  not  willing  to  become  the  mere  slave-driver  you 
propose,  having  no  qualifications  that  wav."  Thereupon  he  re- 
signed his  commission  and  backed  out  of  the  war. 

It  will  be  seen,  in  the  circumstances  just  narrated,  as  well  as 
in  the  diffidence  of  the  president  and  others  high  in  civil  authority, 
that  the  ambition  of  the  negro  to  fight  for  his  freedom  was  handi- 
capped at  almost  ever}'  point.  When  the  slaves  found  that  a  vig- 
orous prosecution  of  the  war  meant  a  speedv  reduction  of  the  re- 
volted states  to  the  recognition  of  a  supreme  American  Union, 
under  which  the  permanent  freedom  of  their  race  would  have  am- 
ple guarantee,  their  anxiet}-^  to  take  a  hand  in  the  great  fray  was 
intensified  in  everj^  quarter.  Their  appeals  to  do  service  forced  a 
hearing  in  the  halls  of  Congress.  The  failure  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  to  capture  Richmond,  after  seven  davs  of  blood-red  car- 
nage, no  doubt  had  a  tendency  in  the  direction  of  inducing  Con- 
gress to  make  use  of  all  the  elements  at  command  which  seemed  to 
promise  a  speed}'  peace.  To  this  end  the  Hon.  Henr}'  AVilson, 
chairman  of  the  senate  committee  on  militarv  affairs,  introduced  a 
bill,  July  16,  1862,  empowering  the  President  to  accept  all  per- 
sons of  African  descent,  for  the  purpose  of  constructing  intrench- 
ments  or  performing  camp  service,  or  any  war  service  for  which 
they  may  be  found  competent!  The  peculiar  phraseology  of  the 
Wilson  bill  gave  color  to  the  idea  that,  even  as  late  as  midsummer 
1862,  the  ability  of  the  negro  to  make  a  good  soldier  was  seriously 
questioned  by  high  authority  in  the  senate  of  the  United  States. 
Most  truly  the  willing  and  anxious  man  of  color  had  a  hard  time 


20  .      vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 

proving  his  right  to  fight  the  battles  of  liis  countr}?^  in  a  war  that 
involved  his  own  libert}^  and  the  freedom  of  all  the  people  of 
his  race. 

It  was  not  until  the  winter  of  1863  that  official  action  was  taken 
authorizing  the  enlistment  of  distinctivelj^  negro  regiments.  An 
order  was  issued  by  the  secretary  of  war,  January  26,  1863,  au- 
thorizing Gov.  Andrew,  of  Massachusetts,  to  raise  two  regiments 
of  negro  troops  to  serve  two  years.  Accordingly  the  Fifty-fourth 
Massachusetts  was  organized  and  equipped,  and  was  mustered  into 
the  military  service  May  13,  1863,  being  the  first  complete  regi- 
ment of  negro  troops  called  to  duty  in  quelling  the  rebellion.  It 
was  ordered  to  proceed  to  South  Carolina,  but  so  great  was  the 
prejudice  at  the  North  against  negro  soldiers  that  the  chief  of 
police  in  the  city  of  New  York  informed  the  war  department 
that  he  feared  the  regiment  would  be  subjected  to  insult  in  case  it 
passed  through  that  metropolis.  However,  his  fears  appear  to  have 
been  groundless,  as  the  regiment  passed  on  its  way  rejoicing. 
About  the  same  time  Adjutant  General  Thomas  personally  took 
charge  of  the  business  of  organizing  negro  regiments  from  among 
the  contraband  negroes  gathered  at  and  near  military  encampments 
along  the  lower  Mississippi,  and  October  13,  of  the  same  year, 
Gen.  Thomas  authorized  his  assistant.  Gen.  E.  D.  Townsend,  to 
issue  a  general  order  providing  for  the  enlistment  and  equipment 
of  negro  troops.  This  was  the  first  general  recognition  of  the 
negroes  to  become  soldiers  of  the  republic  at  all  times  and  in  all 
places  where  recruiting  was  carried  forward;  and  the  third  article 
of  General  Order  No.  329  provided  that  "all  persons  enlisted  into 
the  military  service  shall  forever  thereafter  be  free." 

This  was  the  first  absolute  proclamation  of  emancipation  issued 
in  the  great  civil  war.  Following  its  promulgation  the  enlistment 
of  colored  soldiers  went  forward  with  alacrity  in  every  quarter. 
Within  sixty  days  2,300  negro  troops  were  enlisted  in  New  York 
city,  and  by  December  4,  1863  (about  fifty  days  after  the  issuance 
of  Gen.  Thomas'  order)  three  full  regiments  of  regulars  had  been 
mustered  into  the  United  States  service  at  Camp  William  Penn 
near  Philadelphia.  Subsequently  six  other  regiments  were 
recruited  at  the  same  place.  From  all  quarters  reports  of  enlist- 
ments of  colored  troops  go  to  show  that  fully  one  hundred 
thousand  men  had  responded  to  the  call  of  the  country  b}^  the 
©pening  of  the  year  1864,  and  fully  half  that  number  had  beem 
mustered  into  service.  They  stood  with  guns  in  their  hands  readj 
to  fight  for  freedom  at  the  drop  of  a  hat. 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slates. 


2t 


The  history  of  the  great  civil  war  is  rich  iii  its  testimony  of 
the  patriotism  of  the  negro  and  liis  devotion  to  the  Union  cause, 
after  he  had  learned  the  real  purpose  of  the  struggle  and  the  gov- 
ernment had  receded  from  its  rigidity  against  the  emplo^'ment  of 
colored  troops  for  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion.  The  record 
made  by  the  negroes  entitles  the  race  to  grand  recognition.  By 
the  time  of  Lee's  surrender  186.(117  had  done  honorable  service  in 
the  Union  army.  Of  tliis  number  the  New  England  states  fur- 
nished 7.916  troops;  the  three  states  of  Xew  Jerse}',  Xew  York 
and  Pennsylvania  furnished  13.922;  the  western  states  and  terri- 
tories furnished  12.711;  and  the  southern  states  (including  the 
District  of  Columbia.  3,269)  furnished  108,755  good  and  true 
men.  In  this  splendid  record  the  army  rolls  record  the  fact  tha': 
there  were  13  colonels.  27  lieutenant-colonels.  -42  majors,  256 
captains.  292  first  lieutenants  and  479  second  lieutenants.  Evi- 
dently the  negro  got  to  the  front  as  rapidly  as  circumstances 
afforded  him  an  opportunity. 

In  stating  the  obstacles  that  stood  in  the  way  of  the  negro  race 
being  able  to  don  the  blue,  and  wear  it  with  honor,  no  reflection 
has  been  made  upon  the  Government,  which  was  slow  to  accept  the 
service  of  armed  negroes  as  soldiers  of  the  republic.  The  presi- 
dent and  his  advisors  merely  followed  a  line  of  policy  that  was 
co-eval  with  the  existence  of  the  republic.  Mr.  Lincoln  did  not 
wish  to  place  the  colored  race  in  a  difficult  position.  On  the  con- 
trary his  feeling  was  most  kindly;  but  he  found  himself  in  an 
abnormal  position.  As  the  representative  of  an  anti-slaver^^ 
sentiment  he  was  made  president:  but  his  election  did  not  con- 
template more  than  prudent  measures  to  prevent  the  spread  of  the 
slave  institution.  The  abolition  of  slavery  b}'  means  of  federal 
encroachment  upon  state  authority  was  an  idea  that  had  never 
entered  his  mind,  and  he  would  have  rejected  the  thought  with 
indignation  had  it  been  suggested  to  him  as  a  measure  of  policy  or 
right.  AVhen  the  time  for  universal  freedom  came  he  wa?  ready 
for  the  emergency,  but  he  did  not  seek  it.  The  war  came  on;  Mr. 
Lincoln  accepted  the  negro  as  an  element  that  might  be  instru- 
mental in  the  salvation  of  the  Union,  and  his  confidence  was  not 
misplaced.  Over  nearh'  incomprehensible  objections  the  negro 
became  a  soldier  while  the  war  was  yet  raging  between  the  Xorth 
and  South.    Xow  look  to  the  record  he  made  as  a  soldier. 

The  first  black  regiment  enlisted  for  the  war  was  the  First 
South  Carolina,  commanded  by  Col.  Higginson.  Its  first  material 
service  was  an  expedition  to  the  St.  John's  River  country,  ia. 


22 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


Florida,  where  it  was  met  by  sturdy  resistance  from  southerm 
troops,  intensified  by  a  natural  repugnance  of  southern  white  men 
against  confronting  negroes  with  arms  in  hands.  In  all  its 
skirmishes  the  South  Carolina  troops  met  with  good  success.  In 
recounting  the  results  of  his  expedition  the  colonel  commanding 
said  in  every  instance  his  troops  came  off  with  unblemished  honor 
and  undisputed  triumph,  and  the  men  had  even  appealed  to  him 
for  permission  to  pursue  the  flying  enemy.  His  colored  troops 
were  brave  even  unto  a  fault.  No  wanton  destruction  was  per- 
mitted, and  no  outrages  occurred  during  the  expedition.  In  his 
official  report  Col.  Higginson  said:  "No  officer  of  the  regiment 
now  doubts  that  the  successful  prosecution  of  the  war  now  lies  in 
the  unlimited  employment  of  black  troops." 

At  the  investment  of  Port  Hudson,  in  May,  1863,  the  First 
Louisiana  regiment,  organized  at  New  Orleans,  under  the  direction 
of  Gen.  Butler,  was  given  a  prominent  position.  Col.  Stafford 
addressed  the  troops  saying:  "Protect,  defend,  die  for,  but  do 
not  surrender  the  regimental  flag."  The  color-bearer.  Sergeant 
Planciancois ,  responded:  "Colonel,  I  will  bring  these  colors  back 
to  you  in  honor,  or  report  to  God  the  reason  why."  When  asked 
if  he  could  take  a  certain  battery  in  an  engagement  of  the  war  of 
1812,  a  brave  American  officer  modestly  replied,  "I  will  try,  sir," 
and  he  took  it.  His  historic  words  were  not  more  brave  than 
those  of  Sergeant  Planciancois  at  the  siege  of  Port  Hudson. 

In  the  official  report  of  the  reduction  of  Port  Hudson  General 
Banks  said:  "On  the  extreme  right  I  posted  the  First  and  Third 
regiments  of  negro  troops.  The  First  regiment  of  Louisiana 
engineers  composed  exclusively  of  colored  men,  excepting  the 
officers,  was  also  engaged  in  the  operations  of  the  day.  The 
position  occupied  by  these  troops  was  one  of  importance,  and 
called  for  the  utmost  steadiness  and  bravery  in  those  to  whom  it 
was  confided.  It  gives  me  pleasure  to  report  that  they  answered 
every  expectation.  Their  conduct  was  heroic.  No  troops  could 
be  more  determined  or  more  daring.  They  made,  during  the 
day,  three  charges  upon  the  batteries  of  the  enemy,  suffering  very 
heavy  losses,*  and  holding  their  position  at  nightfall  with  the 
other  troops  on  the  right  of  our  line.  The  highest  commendation 
is  bestowed  upon  them  by  all  the  officers  in  command  on  the  right. 
Whatever  doubt  may  have  existed  before  as  to  the  efficiency  of 
organizations  of  this  character,  the  history  of  this  day  proves 
conclusively  to  those  who  were  in  a  condition  to  observe  the  con- 
duct of  these  regiments,  that  the  government  will  find  in  this 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


23 


class  of  troops  effective  supporters  and  defenders.  The  severe 
test  to  which  they  were  subjected,  and  the  determined  manner  in 
which  they  encountered  the  enemy.  leave  upon  my  mind  no  doubt 
of  their  ultimate  success.  They  require  only  good  officers, 
commands  of  limited  numbers,  and  careful  discipline,  to  make 
them  excellent  soldiers."'  On  the  strength  of  the  charges  of  the 
negro  soldiers  at  Port  Hudson  upon  Confederate  batteries,  George 
H.  Baker  wrote  and  puljlislied  a  poem  after  the  style  of  *•  The 
Charge  of  the  Six  Hundred,"'  which  fully  rivals  that  noble  pro- 
duction in  excellency. 

At  the  Battle  of  3Iilliken"s  Bend.  June  6,  1863,  3,000 
confederates  attacked  the  command  of  Gen.  Dennis,  composed 
in  the  m-ain  of  about  1.250  black  troops.  The  latter  held  their 
ground,  and  such  was  their  heroism  in  action  that  their  gallantry 
excited  general  commendation  in  Union  circles.  Gentlemen 
connected  with  the  Confederate  service  freely  acknowledged  that 
negroes,  armed  with  death  dealing  weapons  and  led  by  experi- 
enced commanders,  constituted  a  soldiery  that  would  challenge 
the  admiration  of  the  world. 

Along  the  coast  of  South  Carolina,  and  to  the  southward,  the 
naval  victories  of  the  Union  forces  were  aided  in  accomplishment 
by  negroes,  and  might  have  been  impossible  but  for  the  brave 
work  of  enlisted  men  of  color  who  there  made  a  record  which  has 
become  imperishable.  The  soldiers  who  figured  in  these  engage- 
ments were  enlisted,  in  a  large  measure,  pursuant  to  the  directions 
of  Governor  Andrew,  of  Massachusetts,  and  direct  communication 
was  made  with  the  Governor  touching  the  bravery  of  the  troops 
he  had  put  in  the  field  in  his  capacity  as  governor  of  the  state. 
It  may  be  truly  said  that  all  ofiicial  reports  on  record,  of  those 
engagements  wherem  negro  soldiers  participated,  that  a  perfection 
of  gallantry  has  been  awarded  to  black  soldiers  who  took  up  arms 
in  the  deep  hour  of  their  country's  distress. 

Following  the  recognized  success  of  the  government  in  making 
perfect  soldiers  of  men  relieved  from  the  bond  of  slavery- ,  and  of 
other  colored  men  who  had  borne  arms  in  the  Department  of  the 
South  and  in  the  region  of  country  contiguous  to  the  lower  Missis- 
sippi river,  the  enlistment  of  colored  troops  was  accepted  as  the 
policy  of  the  government  in  other  fields  of  the  great  war.  Thej 
participated  in  the  later  engagements  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac, 
and  largely  composed  the  forces  of  Gen.  IVild,  who  achieved  a 
substantial  success  over  Gen.  Fitzhugh  Lee  in  the  battle  of  Wil- 
son^s  Wharf.   From  the  date  of  the  introduction  of  colored  soldiers 


24  vaugiixVn's  tlea  fof  the  old  slaves. 

Ill  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  all  opposition  to  the  participation  of 
such  troops  in  the  war  subsided,  and  they  were  welcomed  in  all 
departments  alike  by  officers  in  command  and  by  their  white  com- 
rades in  arms.  In  his  official  report  of  the  engagement  at  Isash- 
ville,  Gen.  James  B.  Steedman  said  that  fully  twenty-five  per 
cent .  of  the  Union  losses  were  suffered  b}^  colored  troops .  He 
placed  upon  record  the  declaration  that  he  was  unable  to  discover 
that  color  made  any  difference  in  the  fighting  capacity  of  the  troops 
under  his  command.  lie  remarked  that  white  and  black  nobly  did 
their  duty  as  soldiers,  evincing  alike  cheerfulness  and  resolution 
in  the  discharge  of  duty.  The  antipathy  of  white  soldiers  against 
their  black  comrades  in  arms  appears  to  have  subsided  under  the 
pressure  of  mutual  dangers  and  their  joint  struggles  for  the  success 
of  the  Union  cause. 

The  troops  commanded  b}^  Gen .  Birney  in  the  East  were  largely 
made  up  of  colored  enlistments,  and  no  part  of  the  army  made  a 
better  record  for  gallantry  or  soldierly  conduct.  Gen.  Lorenzo 
Thomas  gave  cheerful  evidence  to  the  fact  that  in  the  western 
armies  most  heroic  service  was  performed  by  enlisted  blacks  at 
Paducali  and  Columbus,  Ky.;  at  Memphis,  Tenn.;  at  A'^icksburg 
and  Natchez,  Miss.;  at  the  works  around  New  Orleans;  at  the 
Bridge  of  Moscow  on  the  Memphis  and  Corinth  line  of  railwa^^, 
and  at  the  investment  of  Fort  Pillow,  where  colored  men  were 
babtized  unto  freedom  in  rivers  of  blood. 

It  is  unnecessar}^  to  make  special  mention  of  the  barbarity  of 
the  massacre  of  colored  men  at  Fort  Pillow  further  than  to  say 
that  it  has  been  condemned  by  the  sense  of  the  civilized  world. 
It  was  inhuman  in  the  highest  degree.  Gen.  Chalmers,  who  was 
directly  responsible  for  the  butchery,  appears  to  have  been  for- 
given for  his  merciless  order  of  "no  quarter"  by  the  black  people 
of  the  South,  inasmuch  as  thousands  of  them  have  repeatedly 
voted  for  his  election  to  Congress  since  the  era  of  reconstruction ; 
but  there  does  not  appear  to  have  been  unanimity  among  the  col- 
ored voters  in  this  respect,  for  the  savage  general  has  been  regu- 
larly defeated  at  the  polls  in  recent  years . 

It  is  unnecessary  to  follow  the  colored  citizen  of  the  United 
States  further  than  has  been  done  in  the  preceding  pages  with  a 
view  of  according  to  him  gallantry  in  arms.  The  sentiment  of 
the  American  people  has,  long  ago,  settled  in  the  line  of  admission 
that  the  negro  was  a  brave,  cool  and  disciplined  soldier  in  all 
theaters  of  the  great  civil  war  wherein  he  had  been  afforded  a  fair 
opportunity  for  the  development  of  his  powers. 


VAUGHAN  S   PLEA  FOR   THE    OLD  SLAVES 


25 


In  civil  life  he  has  shown  his  capacity  for  self-government. 
In  the  senate  of  the  United  States  H.  E.  Revels  and  Blanche  K. 
Bruce,  both  of  Mississippi,  have  given  a  good  reputation  to  the 
colored  people  for  a  high  order  of  abilit}'.  The  same  may  be  said 
of  Jere  Haralson  and  J.  T.  Rapier,  of  Alabama;  J.  F.  Long,  of 
Georgia;  C.E.  Xash.  of  Louisiana;  J.  R.  Lynch,  of  Mississippi; 
B.  S.  Turner,  of  Xorth  Carolina;  R.  H.  Cain,  R.  C.  DeLarge, 
R.  B.  Elliott,  Joseph  H.  Rainey,  A.  J.  Ransier  and  Robert  Smalls, 
of  South  Carolina:  and  J.  T.  Walls,  of  Virginia,  all  of  ^^dioni  have 
appeared  in  past  years  upon  the  floor  of  the  house  of  representa- 
tives. Among  the  able  diplomats  ^'lio  have  reflected  credit  upon 
the  American  name  abroad  may  be  named  Dr.  Henry  Highland 
Garnett,  Prof.  J.  Milton  Turner,  Ebenezer  D.  Bassett,  Jolin  M. 
Langston  (iiov,-  in  congress),  John  H.  Smith,  and  the  world 
renowned  Frederick  Douglass.  In  the  affairs  of  their  respective 
states  a  large  number  of  the  colored  men  have  done  the  people 
good  service  as  members  of  the  State  Legislatures,  Xorth  and 
Southland  in  many  local  positions.  Promin.ent  among  the  last 
named  class  may  be  mentioned  Sidney  B.  Hint  on,  of  Indiana,  who 
was  elected  to  the  office  of  Canal  Commissioner  b}'  the  general 
assembly  in  1873,  and  afterwards  became  a  member  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  from  the  capital  city  and  county  of  that  state. 
AVhcn  Mr.  Hinton  was  elected  to  the  office  of  canal  commissioner 
one  of  his  confreres  upon  the  canal  board  was  Thomas  Dowling, 
a  gentleman  of  wealth  and  distinction,  whose  personal  record  had 
encompassed  a  generous  portion  of  the  early  history  of  the 
Hoosier  commonwealth.  Being  approached  by  a  small-fry  politi- 
cian, whose  aim  was  to  badger  Mr.  Dowling  upon  the  contingency 
that  required  him  to  recognize  a  colored  man  as  his  political 
equal,  the  diminutive  politician  said: 

••I  congratulate  you.  Col.  Dowling,  upon  being  obliged  to  sit 
upon  the  canal  board  as  the  co-partner  of  Sid  Hinton.  How  do 
you  like  a  seat  by  a  nigger  anyhow 

Col.  Dowling  instantly  replied:  '*!  feel  complimented,  sir. 
I  have  known  Mr.  Hinton  for  twenty  years,  and  I  am  honored  in 
being  placed  at  his  side  above  what  I  would  have  been  had  you 
been  elected  canal  commissioner  instead  of  him.  AVliile  he  has  de- 
voted his  time,  talents  and  money  towards  the  elevation  of  his  race 
you  have  done  your  utmost  to  drag  your  race  down . ' ' 

This  interesting  dialogue  at  once  came  to  a  conclusion,  and 
Col.  Tom  Dowling  was  not  again  molested  with  an  insinuation 
that  he  had  been  obliged  to  recognize  the  political  equality  of  a 


26 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


"nig-ger."  Indeed  it  may  be  said  that  similar  reflections  upon  the 
propriety  of  complete  justice  being  done  to  the  African  race 
speedily  died  out  when  it  became  known  that  the  negro  was  doing 
his  utmost  to  merit  the  boon  of  freedom  with  which  he  had  sud- 
denly become  clothed. 

Even  after  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  of  freedom  bestowed 
upon  the  men  and  women  who  were  released  from  slavery  by  thq 
direful  arbitrament  of  arms,  there  is  an  influential  and  educated 
class  of  well  meaning  people  who  seem  to  doubt  the  capacity  of 
the  negro  for  self  government.  If  such  a  doubt  can  rightfully 
exist,  it  only  furnishes  the  most  forcible  reason  that  can  possibly 
be  assigned,  why  the  general  government  and  the  state  govern- 
ments should  exert  ever}^  effort  at  the  command  of  the  people,  tq 
remove  such  a  frightful  disqualification  from  a  mass  of  citizens  in 
whose  hands  the  ballot  has  been  placed  by  the  authority  of  the 
Federal  Constitution.  A  free  government  can  only  be  maintained 
upon  a  basis  of  general  intelligence.  The  federal  census,  now 
being  compiled,  will  probabl}'  show  that  the  negro  population  ol 
the  United  States  amounts  to  one-nintli  of  the  entire  inhabitancy 
of  all  the  states  and  territories.  The  black  race  is  increasing  in 
numbers  more  rapidl}^,  in  relative  strength,  in  this  country  than 
the  white  race.  AYith  these  facts  confronting  us  it  may  be  well 
to  ask  whether  extraordinary  measures  are  not  absolutely 
demanded,  looking  to  the  lifting  up  in  the  scale  of  intelligence 
of  a  people  who  must  continue  to  be  a  powerful  fraction  of  our 
people  for  generations  to  come.  Give  to  these  men  absolute 
justice.  Pay  them  a  stipend  of  their  earnings  during  the  years 
of  their  involuntary  service.  Place  before  them  the  means  of 
bettering  their  condition .  When  released  from  penury  they  will 
be  willing  to  accept  a  higher  life,  and  to  do  their  part  in  sus- 
taining a  government  that  has  been  just  and  fair  to  them.  Give 
to  them  a  measure  of  pension  which  is  their  national  right. 

During  the  present  year  a  deliberative  body  known  as  the 
''First  Mohonk  Conference  on  the  Negro  Question,"  assembled  at 
Lake  Mohonk  and  engaged  in  a  solemn  discussion  of  the  negro 
problem.  It  was  accorded  to  the  negro,  by  all  X)articipants  in 
debate,  that  he  was  no  weakling,  and  that  his  future  must  be 
determined  in  a  sense  of  strict  justice.  One  of  the  orators,  Rev. 
A.  D.  Mayo,  while  assenting  to  the  proposition  that  the  negro 
was  radical  in  his  views,  went  on  to  say  that  he  was  also  a  very 
politic  member  of  the  communit}^,  in  the  endurance  of  that  which 
he  could  not  overcome,  and  in  his  tactful  and  even  crafty  appro- 


VAUG-HAX'S   PLEA  FOR  THE   OLD  SLATES. 


27 


priation  of  all  opportunities.  He  lias,  as  the  reverend  gentleman 
freely  admitted,  pushed  in  at  every  open  door,  listened  while 
attending  at  the  white  man's  table,  himg  about  the  church  and 
hustings^  taken  in  the  celebration  of  the  public  occasion,  and  lie 
has  observed  methods  on  election  day  even  when  he  could  not 
vote.  He  has  been  all  eyes  and  ears,  and  even  the  pores  of  his 
skin  have  been  open  to  the  incoming  of  a  x^i'actical  education  in 
life.  Depri^'ed.  in  a  large  meastire,  of  the  use  of  books,  because 
of  his  inability  to  absorb  their  contents,  and  not  possessing  the 
ordinary  apparatus  of  instruction,  he  has  eagerly  applied  the  cir- 
cumstances of  actual  life,  as  it  has  come  before  him,  to  the  better- 
ment of  his  own  condition  ;  and  in  very  many  respects  he  has 
ma  le  the  application  much  more  successfully  than  many  of  the 
"  superior  race  " '  who  have  not  been  obliged  to  contend  with  a 
life  of  serritude  in  their  struggle  for  existence.  The  negro  has 
been  called  a  creature  of  imitation.  All  men  are  such,  in  a 
certain  degree,  but  it  must  be  admitted  that  in  the  case  of  the 
black  man  his  imitations  have  been  vastly  helpful  to  his  personal 
condition. 

As  the  years  pass  by  the  resident  negroes  of  the  South,  who 
were  once  slaves,  will  naturally  become  land-owners  and  the  hold- 
ers in  fee  of  the  homesteads  Avhereon  they  reside.  3Iany  of  them 
will  become  men  of  wealth  as  some  have  already  done.  The  suc- 
ceeding pages  of  this  volume  will  indicate  a  few  of  many  instances 
wherein  the  negro  has  raised  himself  from  the  cabin  of  slave  days 
to  opulence  and  high  influence  in  church,  school  and  state.  As  a 
class  the  southern  negroes  have  no  more  idea  of  going  to  Africa 
than  they  have  of  tmdcrtaking  a  journey  to  the  nnjcai.  Neither 
will  they  generally  cohjuize  into  black  communities,  se^jarate  and 
apart  from  the  white  people.  They  are  mliabitants  of  the  repub- 
lic, and  by  reason  of  habit  and  inclination  they  will  remain  in  the 
land  that  has  given  them  birth,  and  where  home  scenes  and  cus- 
toms attach  them  to  their  surroundings.  It  is  a  part  of  the  duty 
which  societ}'  owes  to  them  that  they  should  be  liberally  assisted  in 
making  their  conditions  harmonious  and  conducive  to  the  general 
welfare. 

The  conference  at  Lake  Mohonk  might  have  done  a  great  deal 
for  the  weal  of  the  negro,  and  incidentally  for  the  welfare  of 
society,  had  the  delegates  discussed,  in  a  calm  and  dispassionate 
manner,  the  prctpriety  of  giving  to  the  emancipated  slaves  a  pen- 
sion out  of  the  plethoric  treasury  of  the  government.  A  discus- 
sion of  mean-  designed  to  benefit  this  class  will  find  a  responsire 


28 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


echo  in  the  breasts  of  the  black  people  beyond  any  high-flown 
resolutions  respecting  their  moral  condition  or  the  supply  of 
tracts  and  printed  arguments  upon  abstruse  questions.  As  the 
Lake  Mohonk  conference  appears  to  be  a  permanent  assembly, 
intended  to  have  its  annual  meetings,  it  is  very  respectfully  sug- 
gested that  the  next  convocation  shall  devote  its  time  to  the 
discussion  of  practical  questions. 

In  his  line  of  discourse  Dr.  Mayo  justly  remarked  that  the  old 
slaves  were  Southerners  in  their  feelings  and  instincts.  They  were 
nearly  unanimous  in  their  devotion  to  the  Union  cause  in  a  time  of 
war,  and  are  so  yet.  They  always  will  be.  But  in  this  respect 
they  do  not  differ  from  the  white  people  of  the  South,  in  tne 
present  day ,  for  the  Union  sentiment  is  now  universal.  Bi;c  the 
negroes  are  Southerners,  just  as  the  residents  of  Massachusetts  or 
Connecticut  are  Kew  Englanders  or  the  inhabitants  of  Nebraska 
are  western  people.  As  the  political  issues  of  the  past  fade  into 
the  distance  the  negro  race  will,  more  and  more,  act  in  all  public 
affairs  with  the  leading  race  with  whom  their  companionship  and 
direct  interest  belong.  With  proper  encouragement  and  education 
the  man  emancipated  from  slavery  will  rise  to  his  proper  place  in 
our  great  American  family.  But  let  the  nation  be  just  to  him  as 
it  has  been  just  to  the  soldiers  of  the  Union. 

It  is  undeniable  that  the  northern  people  who  have  organized 
societies  and  collected  contributions  for  the  betterment  of  the 
condition  of  the  southern  negroes,  have  looked  to  the  enlargement 
of  the  religious  elements,  to  which  the  contributors  were  denomi- 
nationally attached,  rather  than  to  the  elevation  of  the  negro  as  a 
man.  The  negro  does  not  require  aid  in  order  that  the  Methodist 
church,  the  Baptist  church  or  any  other  church  may  be  made 
numerically  strong.  He  simply  stands  before  the  country  ds  a 
petitioner  for  justice.  Against  the  law  of  God  and  of  humanity 
he  has  been  held  in  bondage,  and  a  great  civil  commotion  has 
made  him  a  free  man.  He  is  willing  to  accept  all  the  agencies  that 
the  churches  may  organize  for  his  spiritual  advancement,  and,  as 
far  as  his  innate  piety  goes,  to  extend  thanks  to  the  Almighty  for 
a  safe  guide  unto  a  better  life.  But  at  the  same  time  he  stands  as 
a  suppliant  for  justice.  Over  the  pages  of  more  than  three 
centuries  of  American  history  there  has  been  written  the  curse  of 
slavery,  of  which  the  black  man  was  the  cruel  victim.  His 
servitude  begot  that  degree  of  watchful  care  which  is  inseparable 
from  self-interest.  When  the  slave  was  sick  he  was  provided 
with  medical  attendance;  when  he  was  hungry  he  was  fed;  when 


VAUGHAN  S  PLEA  FOR  THE   OLD  SLAVES. 


29 


his  clothes  became  threadbare,  new  habits  were  provided;  when 
the  continual  strain  of  drudgerj^  became  irksome  and  detrimental 
a  holiday  was  given  with  all  the  enlivening  appendages  of  jollit}'- 
and  abundant  humor.  In  a  word  the  interest  of  the  master 
required  the  creature  comfort  of  his  slave  to  be  considered  as  a 
matter  of  prime  importance.  With  emancipation  the  master's 
care  of  self-interest  ceased .  The  government  righted  a  great  wrong 
by  turning  out  the  old  slave  to  starve  and  die! 

Instead  of  devising  ways  and  means  to  secure  the  negro  in  his 
political  rights,  if  these  have  ever  been  invaded,  let  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  vStates  take  steps  to  habilitate  the  ex-slave 
with  a  sense  of  personal  right  which  naturalh'  attaches  to  his 
condition  as  a  freeman, *and  to  do  that  a  reasonable  recompense 
for  the  years  of  toil  he  suffered  as  a  slave  will  be  an  act  that  will 
cast  off  much  of  this  memor}^  of  his  wrongs  and  will  prove  an 
incentive  to  the  exercise  of  the  duties  and  responsibilities  devolv- 
ing upon  manhood .  The  man  who  feels  that  his  government  has 
been  just  to  him  is  not  likely  to  be  inactive  when  the  government 
points  to  an  honorable  service  which  he  can  perform  in  his 
capacit}^  as  a  citizen  for  the  honor  of  his  countr}^.  Instead  of 
quarreling  and  wrangling  when  he  approaches  the  polls  to  deposit 
his  ballot  he  will  go  as  an  orderty  citizen,  meeting  political 
friends  and  antagonists  with  equal  composure  and  confidence,  and 
with  a  heartfelt  prayer  that  the  best  cause  ma}^  win.  It  is 
injustice  that  breeds  bad  feeling.  A  proper  recognition  of  the 
claims  of  former  slaves  for  pension  b}^  the  government  will 
obliterate  the  last  trace  of  enmity  that  has  resulted  from  our  sad 
civil  commotion  and  terrible  appeal  to  arms.  The  North  and  the 
South  will  be  a  unit  again. 

In  this  hastih^  prepared  SKCtch  it  has  been  imperfectl}^  shown 
that  negro  slaver}^  was  planted  upon  Americon  soil  before  the  col- 
onies had  dissolved  their  dependency  upon  the  British  govern- 
ment. It  has  been  shown  that  the  parent  government  made  the 
institution  of  slaver}^  a  fixture  against  the  wishes  of  the  people  of 
the  colonies.  It  has  been  sought  to  be  established  that  the  negro, 
in  the  da^^s  of  slaver}^,  was  generally'  a  tractable  and  obedient  sub- 
ject of  his  lawfulh'  constituted  masters.  It  has  been  set  forth 
that,  when  the  horrors  of  civil  war  began,  a  ver}^  large  propor- 
tion of  the  negro  slaves  of  the  South  felt  disposed  to  espouse  the 
cause  of  their  masters,  and  man}'  of  them  voluntarih'  engaged  in 
acts  of  war  in  support  of  the  rebellion.  It  has  been  the  aim  to 
make  manifest  the   fact  that   when    the    black  people  became 


30 


VALGHAN  S  PLEA  FOR  THE   OLD  SLAVES. 


thoroughl}^  apprised  that  the  advance  of  the  Union  armies  carried 
with  it  freedom  to  the  slaves  they  fell  into  a  support  of  the  Union  " 
cause  with  enthusiasm  and  stood  ready  to  shed  their  blood  under 
the  stars  and  stripes .  It  has  been  made  plain  that  the  government 
was  slow  to  accept  the  service  of  black  men  as  soldiers  of  the 
republic,  but  that  they  proved  themselves  equal  to  the  occasion 
whenever  they  were  allowed  to  do  service,  under  arms,  in  their 
country's  cause.  It  has  been  proven  that  many  of  the  race  have 
demonstrated  a  high  order  of  ability,  and  that  they  have  made  a 
worth}^  record  in  Congress  and  in  the  diplomatic  and  consular 
service  of  the  government. 

What  the  negro  now  requires  is  that  kind  of  recognition  which 
will  give  him  an  independence  begotten  of  'his  former  condition  as 
a  slave,  wherein  he  performed  his  part  nobly  and  well,  so  that  his 
freedom  may  prove  a  blessing  to  future  generations  instead  of  an 
absolute  curse.  It  is  not  questioned  that  great  encouragement  has 
been  given  negroes  in  providing  means  for  their  education  and 
placing  them  in  an  attitude  to  assert  their  rights  and  do  their  duty 
as  freemen.  But  this  service  to  men  made  free  under  such  circum- 
stances as  surrounded  the  emancipation  of  southern  slaves  falls  far 
short  of  a  just  recompense  to  men  who  suffered  generations  of 
servitude  in  consequence  of  no  sin  of  their  own  commission.  No 
act  that  can  now  be  done  will  place  the  old  slaves  and  their 
descendants  in  an  attitude  of  equality,  before  the  law,  with  those 
white  men  of  the  nation  to  whom  the  laws  once  gave  the  fruits  of 
negro  labor  and  the  benefit  of  negro  lives  of  unrecompensed  toil. 

It  is  respectfully  submitted  to  the  law-makers  of  the  land  that 
the  hour  has  arrived  when  the  men  and  women  who  have  been  set 
free  without  support,  and  without  capital  necessary  to  acquire 
such  support,  ought  to  be  cared  for.  In  the  name  of  freedom, 
thousands,  3^ea  millions,  were  turned  away  from  comfortable  homes 
and  sent  adrift  to  provide  for  themselves.  In  how  many  instances 
were  the}^  old  and  poor  ?  In  their  humble  homes  they  said ,  one 
to  another,  when  they  found  the  blessing  of  freedom  to  be  a  pos- 
sibility for  them  and  their  children,  "it  surel}^  must  be  the  work  of 
the  Lord,"  and  on  bended  knees  many  a  devout  heart  prayed 
earnestly  for  deliverance.  Those  same  pious  souls,  when  deliver- 
ance actually  came,  returned  thanks  to  heaven  for  the  sense  of 
liberty  that  pervaded  the  land  and  gave  assurance  to  their  own 
hearts  that  they  were  free  men  and  women.  The}^  asked  nothing 
more  of  their  country  in  that  da}^  than  the  privilege  of  eating  the 
bread  that  supported  life  wi.h  a  perfect  knowledge  that  it  was 


VAUGHAN^S   PLEA  FOR  THE   OLD  SLAVES. 


31 


their  very  own,  earned  by  toil  to  the  fruits  whereof  no  person 
other  than  themselves  could  make  a  lawful  claim.  Such  a  thought 
was  a  new  sensibility  to  a  people  whose  lives  had  been  in  ceaseless 
subjection  to  a  master's  rule,  and  the}^  were  quite  willing  to  take 
up  the  burden  of  life  without  a  complaint  that  the}^  hnd  no  facili- 
ties in  their  new  relations  for  the  making  of  life  enjoyable  or  even 
tolerable.  But  because  the}^  accepted  freedom  with  light  hearts  it 
cannot  be  said  that  the  dut}^  the  government  owes  to  its  wards  is 
any  the  less  sacred,  and  certainly  that  duty  is  not  less  obligatory 
after  the  lapse  of  a  generation  in  consequence  of  the  long  and 
cruel  dela}^. 

The  theory  is  tenable,  and  will  scarcel}^  be  questioned,  that 
emancipation  resulted  as  a  military  necessit}^  rather  than  as  a 
political  or  social  benefit  conferred  upon  the  recipients  as  a  meas- 
ure of  justice  and  humanity.  The  slaver}^  to  which  the  negro  was 
subject  in  ante-bellum  da3^s  was  hereditary,  and  founded  in  ancient 
error  of  government.  But  when  that  same  negro  became  a  nomi- 
nal freeman  without  provision  being  made  for  him  to  engage  in 
the  battle  of  life  on  a  footing  approaching  something  like  equality 
with  others  who  sell  their  labor  in  the  general  market,  in  order 
that  they  may  acquire  dail}^  maintenance  and  reasonable  indepen- 
dence, it  must  be  apparent  that  he  would  suffer  in  the  unequal 
contest.  He  has  been  kept  in  a  condition  of  vassalage  but  little 
removed  from  the  bondage  formerl}^  endured.  lie  has  been  made 
the  prey  of  many  heartless  employers,  because  of  his  ignorance  of 
business  methods,  and  of  myriads  of  designing  politicians  because 
of  his  insufficient  knowledge  of  political  econom}^.  Give  him  the 
means  of  reasonable  independence  and  half  the  evils  that  surround 
his  present  condition  will  be  removed.  In  the  bestowment  of  such 
a  gift  the  government  Avill  only  discharge  a  part  of  the  obligation 
it  owes  for  having  made  the  negro  a  subject  of  taxation,  like  the 
beasts  of  the  field,  during  his  3^ears  of  involuntary  servitude. 

Since  the  day  of  the  surrender  of  Gen.  Robert  E.  Lee  at 
Appomattox,  and  the  consequent  knowledge  that  the  freedom  of 
negroes  held  in  slaver}^  before  the  war  was  assured  by  the  failure 
of  the  Confederate  States  to  maintain  their  existence  as  a  united 
government,  the  question  "What  duty  does  the  United  States 
owe  to  the  emancipated  slaves  ? ' '  has  received  much  thought  and 
^tud}"  on  the  part  of  the  writer.  Thoroughl}^  impressed  with  the 
idea  that  the  changed  condition  of  freedmen  demanded  the  protect- 
ing care  of  the  federal  government,  it  was  a  source  of  information 
to  confer  with  men  occup3dng  eminent  station  in  political  affairs, 


32  vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves^. 

in  conversation  and  by  personal  correspondence,  so  as  to  gather 
their  views  on  this  essential  point.  Aside  from  personal  interviews 
a  great  many  statesmen  were  addressed  by  letter.  Very  little 
satisfaction  was  imparted  by  those  who  were  addressed  in  their 
replies.  In  order  to  make  this  matter  plain  the  following  corres- 
pondence is  inserted: 

FIRST  THOUGHTS  m  THEIR  BEHALF  TWENTY  YEARS  AGO. 

In  1870,  then  a  resident  of  Council  Bluffs,  Iowa,  I  was  called  to 
Selma,  Ala.,  my  former  home,  to  see  my  sick  father,  a  farmer 
residing  near  that  city,  and  while  passing  through  Mississippi,  I 
wrote  my  wife  the  following  letter: 

On  the  cars  in  Mississippi,  Jnl}^  10th,  1870. 
Mrs.  Walter  R.  Vaughan,  Council  Bluffs,  loiva. 

My  Dear  Wife: — I  am  quite  tired  and  it  is  very  hot  and  dusty 
riding.  I  want  to  see  3^ou  and  our  baby  boy  Walter  ver}^  much. 
Will  write  3^ou  a  long  letter  from  Selma,  Ala.  Our  cars  are  filled 
with  former  Mississippi  slaves.  Some  have  a  few  dimes  to  pay  fare 
to  the  next  station,  others  are  forced  to  beg  car  fare.  But  few  of 
them  are  half  dressed.  The  government  should  pension  these  ex- 
slaves  if  the}^- would  right  a  great  wrong.  They  formerly  had 
good  homes,  were  well  fed,  were  provided  with  the  best  medical 
attention  in  sickness,  and  since  their  freedom  just  the  reverse  has 
been  their  portion.  I  do  feel  so  sorry  for  the  poor  unfortunate 
creatures.  I  shall  feel  guilty,  as  an  American,  to  the  crime  of 
enslaving  them,  until  the  government  has  paid  them  the  debt 
justly  due.  I  will  be  in  Selma  at  10  a.  m.  to-morrow.  Write. 
Affectionatel3^  3^our  husband, 

WALTER  R.  VAUGHAN. 

letter  of  appeal. 

Council  Bluffs,  Ia.,  July  10,  1883. 
Dear  Sir:  The  condition  of  persons  who  were  once  slaves,  but 
were  made  free  by  the  proclamations  of  Abraham  Lincoln  during 
the  late  war,  and  by  the  reconstruction  of  the  civil  governments 
of  the  states  recently  in  rebellion ,  has  suggested  to  m}^  mind  that 
something  more  should  be  done  for  those  freedmen  than  merely 
declaring  their  personal  liberty.  Thousands  of  them  have  gone 
forth  from  homes  of  comparative  comfort  into  circumstances  of 
absolute  penury.  Of  course  the  general  declaration  of  freedom 
could  not  be  hampered  with  the  widespread  conditions  of  indi- 
viduals who  came  within  the  per  view  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  proclama- 


VAUGHAX's   PLEA   FOR   THE   OLD  SLAVES. 


33 


tion.  and  hence  an  unconditional  order  of  emancipation  was  a 
necessity  and  an  act  of  right. 

It  has  occurred  to  me  that  tlie  proper  thing  for  the  govern- 
ment to  do  in  tlie  premises  would  be  the  placing  of  all  ex -slaves 
upon  a  civil  pension  list  in  a  sum  sufficient  to  enable  them  to  live 
without  fear  of  certain  want  in  their  old  age.  The  government 
has  suffered  them  to  be  taxed  as  chattels  since  its  organization, 
and  as  such  they  have  contributed  directly  to  the  public  support. 
To  right  a  great  wrong  the  gOA^ernment  can  do  no  better .  it  seems 
to  me.  than  to  make  them  pensioners  for  the  residue  of  their  ex- 
istence, especially  the  aged  and  dependent. 

I  should  be  glad  to  learn  vour  sentiments  touching  the  pro- 
priety of  the  course  proposed  to  be  pursued,  with  any  suggestion 
you  may  see  fit  to  make  in  the  premises.  I  have  in  view  an 
elaborate  discussion  of  the  subject  in  a  pamphlet  or  book.  An 
earl}^  repl}^  hereto  will  greatly  oblige. 

Yours  very  truly. 

AY.  E.  YAUGHAX. 

Among  others  to  whom  the  foregoing  letter  was  addressed,  it 
was  mailed  to  the  Hon.  Benjamin  Harrison,  then  a  senator  from 
the  state  of  Indiana  and  now  president  of  the  United  States.  After 
a  delay  of  something  more  than  a  month,  the  senator  wrote  as  fol- 
lows from  his  home  in  Indianapolis: 

(See  fac-simile  letter  on  following  page.) 

UXITED  STATES  SENATE. 

Ixd'pls,  Ixd.,  Aug.  17,  1883. 
W.  R,  VaygJian,  Esq.,  Council  Bluffs,  luioa: 

Dear  Sir:  Y^our  letter  in  relation  to  the  subject  of  the  wrongs 
of  colored  people,  and  your  proposition  for  national  aid  for  them, 
has  been  received.  I  have  not  time  to  make  any  contribution  to 
the  discussion  of  this  subject  myself.  I  will  say,  however,  that  I 
think  the  most  efficient  way  in  which  the  government  can  aid  the 
colored  people  is  by  some  provision  in  aid  of  education  in  the  South. 

Yours  truly,  Bexj.  Harrisox. 


'ilCrnfcd  '$)fcifc^  Sicncik^ 


^^■<cytr-c^  ^-yi.^^ir^ 


VArGHAX's   PLEA   FOR   THE   OLD  SLAVZ> 


35 


It  can  scarcel}-  be  said  that  C-ren.  Harrison  touched  the  point  at 
issue.  Still  his  suggestion  of  educating  the  freedmen  manifested  a 
kno^vledge  of  their  dependent  condition.  Unfortunately  the  majur 
part  of  tlie  race  ^'ere  much  too  far  advanced  in  life  to  I'ccome  the 
5ubje-cts  of  school-boy  instruction.  For  the  younger  ones  most  of 
the  states  have  liberally  provided  school  facilities,  and  it  is  a  pleas- 
ure to  know  that  in  the  main  the  colored  people  of  the  southern 
states,  of  the  present  generation,  have  enjoyed  fair  benefits  of 
education . 

A  letter  similar  to  the  above,  perhaps  an  exact  copy,  ^vas 
mailed  to  Senator  Preston  B.  Plumb,  of  Kansas.  That  gentleman 
furnished  the  follo^ring  letter  in  reply: 

fac-simile  of  sexatoPl  rLUAin  *5  reply. 

'jJiTirHcb  ^{aics  ^cnate^ 


X"^  ^ 


36 


VAUGHAN  S  PLEA  FOR  THE   OLD  SLAVES. 


The  suggestion  made  by  Senator  Plumb  that  before  any  steps 
shall  be  taken  to  provide  pensions  for  "able-bodied  people,  who 
are  quite  capable  of  making  a  living,"  it  is  the  duty  of  the  gov- 
ernment first  to  lake  care  of  its  disabled  soldiers,  is  scarcely  perti- 
nent to  the  question  under  discussion.  But  as  the  soldiers  have 
been  well  provided  with  pensions,  especially  the  unfortunate  class 
who  suffered  disabilities,  there  can  be  no  room  on  that  score  for 
withholding  from  the  men  who  endured  years  of  slavery,  without 
just  cause,  a  recompense  for  the  injustice  they  suffered  for  so  many 
years.  The  further  remark  of  the  senator,  that  "if  all  govern- 
ments are  to  be  held  responsible  for  all  damages  resulting  from  the 
passage  and  execution  of  laws,  the  unfortunate  tax-payer  would 


VAUGHAX'S   PLEA  FOR  THE   OLD  SLAVES. 


37 


be  constrained  to  sell  out,"  can  scarcely  have  been  well  considered 
by  liim.  The  laws  by  which  a  race  of  people  were  enslaved  for 
hundreds  of  3-ears  certainly  do  not  have  a  place  by  the  side  of 
statutes  that  have  occasioned  trivial  injuries  or  losses.  Besides, 
for  inconsiderable  personal  injuries  the  courts  have  commonly 
found  means  of  redress,  and  the  losses  suffered  have  been  adjusted 
in  countless  instances.  For  the  flagrant  wrong  of  slavery  the  vic- 
tims have  not  been  paid  one  cent . 

Another  senator  whose  opinion  was  sought  was  the  Hon.  O.  H. 
Piatt,  of  Connecticut.     In  answer  Senator  Piatt  wrote  as  follows: 

i'AC-SIMILE   OF   SENATOR  PLATT's  LETTER. 
ly  ^  .     ^         AC^I      -Cc^       /^c^  ^>-»-£^.siAr^J 

(-OA^  ^-^^h^^      U^TT^-IC  ^ 

^  ^  c--if^^^^^ 


38 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


It  will  be  plainl^^  seen  that  neither  of  the  gentlemen,  the  fac- 
simile of  whose  letters  are  given  to  the  public  in  this  volume, 
appear  to  have  entertained  a  high  admiration  for  the  proposition 
to  pension  the  ex-slaves.  The  tenor  of  their  brief  comments  may 
properly  be  interpreted  to  be  adverse  to  that  proposition. 
Whether  the  advance  of  years  may  have  affected  an  advance  in 
the  liberality  and  justice  of  their  ideas  remains  to  be  seen,  as  they 
are  all  in  high  political  station  and  may  have  a  voice  in  the 
settlement  of  the  question  now  formally  submitted  to  an  honest 
people  through  their  representatives  in  the  law-making  branch  of 
the  federal  government. 

Fully  seven  years  having  passed  away  since  this  great  subject 
was  brought  to  the  attention  of  members  of  congress,  and  others 
eminent  in  public  life,  the  writer  was  forced  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  only  way  left  open  for  him  to  pursue  was  to  prepare  a  bill 
setting  forth  the  general  purpose  sought  to  be  accomplished,  and 
to  procure  its  formal  introduction  into  Congress,  in  case  a  senator 
or  representative  could  be  found  willing  to  have  his  name  con- 
nected with  a  just  measure  having  in  contemplation  a  small  per- 
centage of  the  compensation  due  from  a  great  nation  to  a  part  of 
the  human  race  it  had  held  in  slavery  by  the  power  of  its  gov- 
ernment, exercised  in  the  enforcement  of  oppressive  laws. 

In  conversation  with  the  Hon.  William  J.  Connell,  representa- 
tive in  the  Fifty-first  congress  from  the  First  District  of  Nebraska, 
that  gentleman  expressed  his  willingness  to  introduce  the  required 
bill  and  to  take  care  of  all  correspondence  that  might  come  in  his 
hands  in  consequence  of  such  introduction.  The  writer  esteems 
himself  fortunate  in  having  secured  the  help  of  Congressman 
Connell,  which  was  accorded  cheerfully.  It  is  a  pleasure  to  be 
able  to  say  that  Mr.  Connell  belongs  to  that  class  of  public  men 
who  appreciate  their  relation  to  their  constituents  and  who  fulfill 
every  respectable  service  required  at  their  hands  with  assiduity  if 
not  real  pleasure.  In  this  instance  the  writer  is  happy  in  the 
belief  that  Mr.  Connell  is  in  full  sympathy  with  the  spirit  of  the 
measure  he  has  laid  before  the  House  of  Kepresentatives,  and  will 
do  all  that  lies  in  his  power  to  secure  for  it  a  fair  consideration. 

The  bill  presented  by  Mr.  Connell  was  drafted  by  the  writer 
(W.  R.  Vaughan,  editor  of  the  Omaha  Daily  Democrat  and 
president  of  the  Democrat  Publishing  Company) ,  and  the  full 
text  of  the  measure  is  as  follows; 


VAUGHAN  S   PLEA  FOR  THE   OLD  SLAVES. 


39 


A  BILL  for  an  Act  to  provide  pensions  for  freedmen  released  from 
involuntar}-  servitude,  and  to  afford  aid  and  assistance  for  certain  persons 
released,  that  they  may  be  maintained  in  old  age. 

Prepared  by  W.  R.  Vaughan  of  Omaha,  and  introduced  by  Hon.  W.  J. 
Connell,  M.  C.  from  the  First  Nebraska  District,  by  request. 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States, 
in  Congress  assembled: 

Section  1.  That  all  persons  released  from  involuntary  servitude, 
commonl}^  called  slaves,  in  pursuance  of  the  proclamation  of  ex-president 
Abraham  Lincoln,  dated  respectively  September  23,  1862,  and  Januar^^  1, 
1863,  and  in  pursuance  of  amendments  to  the  constitutions  of  the  several 
states  wherein  slavery  or  involuntar}'-  servitude  formerly  existed,  recog- 
nized by  the  federal  constitution  and  laws  of  the  United  States,  or  by  any 
law,  proclamation,  decree  or  device  wherebj^  persons  once  held  as  slaves 
or  involuntary  subjects,  in  consequence  of  race  or  color,  or  federal  or 
state  recognition  of  involuntary^  servitude,  except  for  the  commission  of 
crime,  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted,  shall  be  and 
hereby  are  made  j^ensioners  upon  the  bounty  of  the  L^nited  States,  and 
also^uch  persons  as  may  be  charged  by  laws  of  consanguinity  with  the 
maintenance  and  support  of  freedmen  who  are  unable  by  reason  of  age  or 
disease  to  maintain  themselves. 

Sec.  2.  Any  person  who  may  have  been  held  as  a  slave  or  involun- 
tary servant  under  and  by  reason  of  sluj  law  of  the  United  States,  or  in 
consequence  of  any  device  or  custom  prevailing  within  such  states  or  the 
United  States,  except  for  the  commission  of  crime  whereof  the  party 
shall  have  been  dul}"  convicted,  and  who  shall  have  been  released  from 
such  servitude  in  manner  before  stated,  and  who  shall  at  the  date  of  the 
passage  of  this  act  have  reached  the  age  of  seventy  years  shall  be  entitled 
to  and  receive  the  sum  of  f 500  from  the  treasury^  of  the  United  States, 
hereby  authorized  to  be  paid  out  of  any  moneys  not  otherwise  appropri- 
ated, and  to  the  sum  of  |15  per  month  during  the  residue  of  their  natural 
lives.  This  provision  shall  apply  to  male  and  female  alike.  And  all 
persons  so  released  from  servitude  who  shall  be  less  than  seventy  3*ears 
of  age  and  of  the  age  of  sixty  j^ears  or  over,  shall  be  entitled  to  receive 
the  sum  of  $300,  and  also  $12  per  month  until  the}-  shall  reach  the  age  of 
seventy"  y^ears,  when  they  shall  be  entitled  to  and  receive  the  greater  sum 
hereinbefore  stated  as  a  monthh^  payment.  And  all  persons  released 
from  servitude  as  before  stated  who  shall  be  less  than  sixty  y^ears  old 
and  of  the  age  of  fifty  years  or  over  shall  be  entitled  to  and  receive  the 
sum  of  $100  and  also  $8  per  month,  until  sixty  years  old,  when  they  shall 
receive  $12.  And  all  persons  released  from  servitude  as  before  stated 
who  shall  be  less  than  fifty  years  of  age,  shall  be  entitled  to  and  receive 
$4  per  month  until  fifty  j-ears  old,  when  they  shall  receive  eight  dollars. 
All  moneys  herein  authorized  to  be  paid  shall  be  dispensed  from  the 
general  funds  of  the  treasury,  not  otherwise  appropriated. 

Sec.  3.  Relations  or  others  who  may  be  charged  Vy^th  the  support  of 
aged  or  infirm  persons  released  from  involuntary-  servitude,  in  manner 
aforesaid,  shall  be  entitled  to  and  receive  the  monthly-  pension  awarded  to 
such  aged  or  infirm  persons  in  whole  or  in  part  upon  showing  to  the  satis- 
faction of  the  secretary-  of  the  interior  that  such  support  is  afforded  in  a 
humane  and  becoming  manner,  the  amount  of  such  pay-ment  being 
under  the  control  and  direction  of  the  secretary  aforesaid. 

Sec.  4.  The  secretary-  of  the  interior  shall  have  power  to  prepare  all 
needful  rules  and  regulations  for  the  carrying  into  elTect  of  the  provisions 
of  this  act  according  to  the  true  intent  and  meaning  thereof,  and  to 
designate  proper  officers  or  agents  through  whom  freedmen  and  other 
persons  may  make  application  for  payment  and  receive  money-s  author- 
ized to  be  paid  by  the  provisions  of  this  act. 

Sec.  5.    All  needful  rules  and  regulations  for  the  carry-ing  into  effect 


40 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


of  the  provisions  of  this  act  shall  be  approved  by  congress  before  the 
takeng  into  effect  thereof. 

Sec.  6.  The  compensation  of  agents  charged  with  the  enforcement  of 
this  law  shall  be  recommended  by  the  secretary  of  the  interior  and 
approved  by  congress. 

Sec.  7.  This  act  shall  take  effect  and  be  in  force  from  and  after  the 
first  day  of  January,  A.  D.  1891. 

The  "Freedmen's  Pension  Bill,"  as  it  may  be  properly  called, 

was  introduced  in  the  house  of  representatives  June  24,  1890.  It 

was  read  twice  (which  appears  to  be  the  custom)  and  referred  to 

the  Committee  on  Invalid  Pensions.    The  following  telegram  was 

received  as  soon  as  the  bill  was  introduced: 

Washington,  D.  C,  June  24,  1890. 

Hon  ,  W.  B.  Vaughan: 

Your  slave  pension  bill  introduced  and  referred .  Will  send 
you  copies  as  soon  as  printed.  W.J.  CONNELL. 

Congressman  Connell's  attention  was  immediately  called  to  the 
fact  that  the  bill  should  have  been  referred  to  the  Committee  on 
Pensions,  and  the  following  letter  was  promptly  received: 

House  of  Representatives  U.  S.,  ) 
Washington,  D.  C,  July  17,  1890.  j" 

Hon.  W.  R.  Vaughan: 

Dear  Sir:  I  have  before  me  your  letter  of  the  8th  instant  ac- 
knowledging receipt  of  the  copies  of  your  Freedman's  Bill,  which 
I  recently  forwarded  to  you.  You  are  correct  in  tlie  statement 
that  the  bill  has  erroneously  been  referred  to  the  Committee  on  In- 
valid Pensions.  As  you  say,  it  should  have  been  referred  to  the 
Committee  on  Pensions.  I  will  at  once  have  a  change  of  reference 
made.  As  soon  as  this  is  done  I  will  have  a  request  made  by  the 
committee,  in  accordance  with  3^ our  suggestion,  that  the  Secretary 
of  the  Interior  furnish  an  estimate  as  to  the  probable  cost  to  the 
government  in  carrying  out  the  provisions  of  the  bill.  I  will  for- 
ward to  you  any  references  to  the  bill  which  I  consider  may  be  of 
special  interest  to  you. 

Very  truly  yours, 


VAUGHAX'S  TLEA   FOR   THE   OLD  SLAVES. 


41 


Of  course  there  is  a  disposition  to  make  light  of  this  proposi- 
tion in  view  of  the  "vast  expense,"  according  to  the  criticism  of 
public  prints.  That  expense  will  be  less  than  33  per  cent,  of  the 
cost  to  the  government  of  the  great  civil  war,  and  from  that  heavy 
debt  the  country  is  emerging  at  the  rate  of  $140,000,000  a  year. 
Already  the  millionaires,  and  men  of  control  in  wealthy  banking 
institutions,  are  howling  at  the  prospect  of  the  early  pa^^ment  of 
the  national  debt  and  there  being  left  no  means  behind  whereupon 
bonds  may  be  predicated  for  the  continuance  of  their  pet  institu- 
tions. It  is  respectfulh^  suggested  that  justice  to  the  negro  might 
prove  a  panacea  for  the  woes  the}'  have  in  such  serious  contem- 
plation. What  a  pity  it  would  be  to  let  the  poor  millionaires  fail 
of  an  opportunity  to  turn  an  honest  penny. 

THE   CAUSE  IS  JUST. 

Many  of  the  metropolitan  newspapers  are  owned  by  millionaires 
and  they  have  attempted  to  burlesque  the  bill,  claiming  that  the 
money  requiring  to  pension  the  ex-slaves  would  bankrupt  the  gov- 
ernment, etc.  But  hundreds  of  letters  have  been  received  by  Mr. 
Connell  and  the  author  of  the  bill  commending  it  as  a  measure  of 
justice.  As  Congressman  Connell  expressed  himself  in  the  follow- 
ing letter  on  the  subject  of  the  cause  being  just,  we  tjika  the 
liberty  of  reproducing  his  letter: 

^See  fac-siniile  of  letter  on  following  page.) 

HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES,  U.  S. 

WASHixGTOi^-,  July  5th/  1890. 

Hon.  W.  R.  Vaughan: 

Deae  Sir:  The  enclosed  is  a  specimen  of  many  letters  I  have 
received  regarding  the  bill  to  provide  pensions  for  freedmen,  etc., 
which  I  recently  introduced  at  your  request.  In  making  response 
to  such  letters,  and  in  interviews  with  representatives  of  the  press 
desiring  information  regarding  the  bill,  I  have  always  made  men- 
tion of  the  fact  that  you  were  the  author  of  the  bill,  and  that  I 
introduced  it  at  your  request.  As  previously  stated,  this  I  will 
make  appear  in  the  Record  in  due  time.  You  are  entitled  to  full 
credit  of  both  suggesting  and  preparing  the  bill.  Its  provisions 
have  occasioned  much  comment  and  some  criticism;  but  who  cares 
for  the  latter  when  the  cause  is  just? 

Very  truly  yours, 

W.  J.  CoXi^ELL. 


72. 

7^  ^^-^^^^ 


YAUOHAX'S   PLEA   FOK   THE   OLD  SLATES. 


*43 


C<^^>^  ^"Jotf-*^^   ~  ^i^t><.  C-^yLZ^s. 


^/ 

The  specimen  letter  to  which  I\Ir.  Coiiiiell  made  reference  in 
the  foregoing  communication  was  from  Benjamin  0.  Jones.  Esq.. 
a  gentleman  of  prominence  in  Southern  Illinois,  and  was  couched 
in  the  following  terms : 

Metropolis.  III..  June  27.  1890. 
Hon,  Tr.       ConnelL  Washington.  D.  C: 

Dear  Sir:  Allow  me  to  congratulate  you  upon  being  the  first 
man.  in  Congress,  to  take  the  initial  step  towards  an  act  of  justice 
to  the  ex-slaves  of  our  country.  Man}' thousands  of  slaves  were 
thrown  upon  their  own  resources  as  a  result  of  tiie  war.  and  at  a 
period  of  life  when  they  were  unal^le  to  learn  the  great  problem 
of  hpw  to  win  bread.  They  have  for  years — those  who  survived — 
eked  out  a  wretched  existence  at  the  hands  of  cliarity,  unable  to 
learn  how  to  make  a  living.  Many  still  survive  in  poverty',  the 
inmates  of  our  poor  houses  and  other  charitable  institutions,  or 
go  among  us  as  gaunt  images  of  famine,  a  reproach  to  the  govern- 
ment that  made  them  freemen.  Their  condition  was  made 
wretched  by  the  act  of  emancipation .  They  were  taken  away  from 
abundance  and  turned  out  of  their  homes  to  starve.     They  helped 


44 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


to  develop  the  resources  and  wealth  of  this  country,  and  they 
ought  to  enjoy  some  of  its  blessings.  They  should  not  be  allowed 
to  fill  paupers'  graves  or  to  seek  at  the  hands  of  charity  the  com- 
monest necessities  of  life.  I  am  a  white  man,  was  raised  in  the 
slave  state  of  Kentucky,  and  I  desire  to  thank  you  for  your  noble 
courage  and  humanity  in  presenting  this  bill,  in  this  prominent 
manner,  to  the  consideration  of  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States . 

Who  would  not  prefer  the  dangers  of  a  soldier's  life  to  the  tor- 
turing immolation  of  a  life  of  slavery  ?  Let  us  pension  the  old 
ex-slaves.  I  have  advocated  it  on  the  stump,  and  I  congratulate 
you  that  your  position  enables  3^ou  to  speak  to  more  people  and 
with  greater  effect.    Please  send  me  a  copy  of  your  bill. 

Truly  and  sincerely, 

BENeT.  O.  JONES. 
Hundreds  of  letters  from  the  white  and  colored  citizens  of  the 
South  have  also  been  received,  and  the  following  is  a  fair  sample 
of  the  southern  sentiment  as  to  "Vaughan's  Freedmen's  Pension 
Bill,"  for  which  reason  it  is  reproduced: 

SOUTHERN  SENTIMENT. 

Sherill,  Ark.,  July  12,  1890. 
W.  R.  Vaughan^  Esq.,  Editor  and  President  Omaha  Democrat: 

Dear  Sir:  By  accident,  one  of  your  valuable  papers  has  fallen 
into  my  hands.  Though,  I  guess,  from  the  name,  it  is  democratic 
in  politics,  yet  it  has  the  true  ring  of  right  and  justice.  I  herein 
enclose  subscription  for  daily  and  Sunday  for  one  month,  and  in- 
tend to  take  it  longer.  I  am  a  true  blue  republican,  a  colored 
man  and  an  ex-slave.  I  am  truly  glad  to  see  that  there  is  one 
democrat  that  is  a  true  friend  from  his  heart  to  the  negro  that 
has  been  for  years  imposed  upon.  As  for  myself,  I  care  not 
whether  I  get  a  cent  from  the  government  or  not,  as  I  was  liber- 
ated when  quite  young,  and  am  hale  and  hearty  and  able  to  take 
care  of  "me  and  mine."  But  justice  should  be  done  to  the  older 
ones,  at  least,  who  were  turned  loose  at  an  old  age,  without  educa- 
tion, homes  or  money,  and  broken  down  in  health,  unable  to  make 
a  support,  thrown  upon  the  charity  of  a  cold  world — paupers. 
You  and  Congressman  Council ,  of  your  state,  have  enlisted  in  a 
humane  and  commendable  cause.  Whether  you  succeed  or  not, 
your  names  will  be  revered  by  the  dusky  sons  of  Africa  as  true 
friends  of  our  race.  The  news  of  such  a  measure  pensioning  ex- 
slaves  has  spread  among  them  like  wildfire,  and  they  are  now 


VAUGHAX  S  PLEA  FOR  THE   OLD  SLAVES. 


45 


watching  with  eager  eyes,  and  listening  with  attentive  ears,  to  see 
who  their  friends  are,  whether  democrats  or  republicans.  Both 
parties  tell  us  that  they  are  our  friends.  Well,  we  will  wait  and 
see.  We  will  watch  their  votes.  Now  is  the  time  and  opportu- 
nity to  prove  friendship.  The  democratic  party  should  vote  for 
the  measure,  not  because  the  negro  is  its  allj^,  for  he  is  not,  but 
because  it  is  right  and  just.  The  republicans  should  support  it 
for  the  same  reasons,  except  the  negro  has  been  with  them  ever 
since  Mr.  Lincoln's  proclamation. 

The  southern  congressmen  should  support  the  bill  for  another 
reason  beside  justice,  but  because  nine- tenths  of  the  money  will 
come  south,  and  as  most  all  of  the  merchants  and  land  owners  in 
the  south  are  whites ,  of  course  it  will  circulate  amongst  them .  But 
we  fear  that  for  this  reason  my  party  (the  republican)  will  defeat 
it.  We  hope  not.  In  this  matter  of  right  and  justice  both  par- 
ties should  put  themselves  on  record  unanimously  in  favor  of  the 
bill.  Yours,  S.  P.  HAYIS. 

The  letters  of  Mr.  Jones  and  8.  P.  Havis  given  above  in  full 
are  inserted  in  these  pages  rather  than  any  of  the  very  many 
others  which  have  been  written  upon  the  subject  of  the  Freedmen's 
Pension  Bill.  The}"  commend  Congressman  Council,  who  has 
taken  the  initiative  in  the  work  of  justice  towards  an  impover- 
ished race,  in  his  character  as  a  representative  of  the  people,  and 
by  Mr.  Connell  referred  to  the  writer  of  these  pages.  The  fact  is 
fully  appreciated  b}^  the  writer  that  courage,  determination,  and 
ver}"  possibl}^  the  expenditure  of  a  good  deal  of  mone}^  will  be 
necessar}"  in  order  to  accomplish  the  great  task  now  self-assumed. 
The  aid  of  such  a  man  as  W.  J.  Connell,  and  of  others  who  will 
give  to  him  their  confidence  and  support,  will  assist  in  the  accom- 
plishment of  a  work  of  reformation  in  governmental  abase  which 
now  warps  the  American  character,  as  an  avowed  exponent  of  full 
and  complete  justice  towards  all  men.  The  words  of  commenda- 
tion spoken  and  written  to  the  author  of  the  Freedmen's  Pension 
Bill,  would  fill  a  fair  sized  volume;  but  the  publication  of  all  of 
these  would  be  but  a  repetition,  in  substance, of  the  candid  words 
and  views  expressed  in  the  communications  of  Mr.  Jones  and  Mr. 
Havis . 

If  the  writer  could  appeal  to  the  better  sentiment  of  the 
persons  who  make  up  the  Commons  of  Great  Britain,  and  to  the 
men  of  liberal  sentiment  in  that  countr}-- ,  he  would  appeal  to  them 
to  give  their  encouragement  to  an  enterprise  looking  to  a  decent 
compensation  to  the  sons  and  daughters  of  the  race  of  human 


46 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


beings  who  were  forced  upon  English  colonists  as  slaves,  years 
and  years  before  American  freedom  from  British  domination  was 
contemplated  by  even  the  most  far-seeing  and  resolute  of  the 
American  people.  But  such  an  appeal  would  propably  be  in  vain. 
To  the  emancipated  men  and  women  of  the  recent  slave  states, 
however,  it  may  be  well  enough  to  say:  "Bear  in  remembrance 
the  fact  that  you  were  not  made  slaves  by  the  will  of  the  people  of 
the  states  that  held  you  in  bondage  from  your  birth  to  the  day 
of  your  liberation.  You  came  to  those  people  by  inheritance. 
The  institution  of  slavery  was  planted,  nurtured  and  grew  into 
power  in  American  states  under  the  author it}^  and  domination  of 
the  English  nation  when  that  power  owned  and  ruled  this  land." 

PROGRESS   OF   ANTI-SLAVERY  SENTIMENT. 

In  another  part  of  this  volume  it  has  been  shown  that  the 
original  importation  of  slaves  into  North  America  was  the  work 
of  British  merchants  and  traders,  who  forced  the  ins'daition  of 
slavery  upon  the  colonies  in  violation  of  the  protests  of  the 
colonists,  who  were  averse  to  the  establishment  of  the  institution 
of  slavery  in  their  midst.  Recurrence  is  had  to  this  historical 
fact  with  a  view  of  showing  that  there  has  alwa3"s  been  a  strong 
and  able  sentiment  in  opposition  to  the  institution  of  human 
slavery  ;  and  that  its  apologists  have  been  influenced  by  consid- 
erations of  personal  interest,  coupled  with  an  inability  to  make 
free  the  slaves,  and  to  settle  suitable  provision  for  their  sustenance 
upon  the  subjects  of  emancipation  when  made  by  masters  to  such 
as  constituted  their  personal  estate  under  the  laws  of  those  states 
where  they  severally  resided. 

From  the  best  records  obtainable  it  appears  that  British  adven- 
turers first  engaged  in  the  Importation  of  African  slaves  in  the 
year  15G2,  during  the  reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  that  the 
scheme  was  undertaken  for  mercenary  purposes.  After  Sir  John 
Hawkins  had  made  a  profitable  trip  between  the  coast  of  Africa 
and  the  West  India  Islands,  his  monarch  sent  for  him  and 
upbraided  him  for  engaging  in  an  inhuman  traffic  ;  one  that  was 
* '  detestable ' '  and  would  certainly  ' '  call  down  the  vengeance  of 
heaven."  Although  promising  his  queen  not  again  to  engage  in 
a  traffic  in  human  flesh,  he  once  more  made  a  successful  voyage  to 
Africa,  and  returned  with  a  cargo  of  negroes  who  were  impressed 
into  slavery.  Hill's  Naval  History  tells  us  of  Sir  John  Hawkins' 
second  expedition ,  that  ' '  here  began  the  horrid  practice  of  forcing 
Africans  into  slavery,  an  injustice  and  barbarity  which,  so  sure  as 


VAI'GHAX'S   PLEA   FOR   THE   OLD  SLAVES 


there  is  a  vengeance  in  heaven  for  the  worst  of  crimes,  will  some 
time  be  the  destruction  of  all  vho  allow  or  encourage  it . " ' 

For  two  luindrefl  years  the  slave  trade  was  continued  as  a 
source  of  profit,  and  in  the  mean  time  it  became  firmly  rooted 
upon  the  territory  of  the  English  colonies,  and  also  upon  the 
soil  in  possession  of  the  governments  of  France  and  Spain. 
During  all  this  period  there  were  brave  men  who  fought  the 
iniquity  with  valor  and  determinatiun .  But  like  prudent  men 
they  did  not  -eek  to  turn  the  world  upside  down  at  a  single 
stroke.  They  directed  their  efforts,  first  towards  the  suppression 
of  the  slave  trade,  next  to  the  prohibition  of  slavery  extension 
upon  free  territory,  and  finally  to  the  direction  of  the  abolition  of 
the  institution  itself. 

Among  the  early  enemies  of  the  slave  trade,  and  incidentally 
of  human  slavery .  may  be  reckoned  Richard  Baxter,  the  author  of 
Baxter's  Saints'  Eest.  and  other  works  of  a  christian  and 
devotional  character,  who  puljlished  a  periodical  known  as  the 
'•Negro  and  Indian  Advocate."'  In  the  columns  of  his  paper  he 
took  the  ground  tliat  they  who  go  out  as  pirates  and  take  away 
African  subjects  or  the  people  of  any  other  land,  who  have  never 
forfeited  life  or  liberty,  and  make  them  slaves  and  sell  them,  are 
the  worst  of  robbers,  and  ought  to  be  considered  as  the  common 
enemies  of  mankind.  He  went  further  and  declared  that  tliey  who 
buy  them  and  use  them  as  mere  beasts  for  their  own  convenience, 
regardless  of  their  spiritual  welfare,  are  fitter  to  be  called  demons 
than  christians. 

At  a  later  day  Dr.  Primatt  published  a  lecture  entitled  a 
"Dissertation  on  the  Duty  of  Mercy."  in  which  tliat  eminent 
divine  spoke  of  the  institution  of  African  slavery  in  the  following 
scathing  terms:  "It  has  pleased  God  to  cover  some  men  with 
white  skins  and  others  with  black:  but  as  there  is  neither  merit 
nor  demerit  in  complexion,  the  white  man.  notwithstanding  the 
barbarity  of  custom  and  prejudice,  can  have  no  right  by  virtue  of 
his  color  to  enslave  and  tyrannize  over  the  black  man.  For 
whether  a  man  be  white  or  black,  such  he  is  by  God's  appoint- 
ment, and  abstractly  considered,  is  neither  a  subject  for  pride  nor 
an  object  of  contempt.'' 

In  1735  Dr.  Atkins,  a  surgeon  in  the  British  navy,  published 
an  account  of  a  voyage  made  by  him  to  Guinea,  on  the  west  coast 
of  Africa,  and  thence  to  the  West  Indies  and  Brazil.  He 
describes  vividly  the  methods  pursued  by  slave  dealers  of  sup- 


48 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


plying  their  vessels  with  their  cargoes  of  human  freight,  by  kid- 
napping, by  false  accusations  and  pretended  trials,  and  every 
nefarious  device  known  to  avarice  and  cupidity.  In  his  account 
he  details  the  cruelties  practiced  upon  the  native  Africans  by 
white  men,  who  were  British  slave  traders;  and  he  proceeds,  while 
exposing  their  cruelty,  to  answer  their  staple  argument,  by  which 
they  maintained  that  the  condition  of  the  Africans  was  improved 
by  their  transportation  to  other  countries. 

Edmund  Burke ,  the  famous  British  statesman ,  in  his  account  of 
the  European  settlements  planted  in  America,  placed  upon  record 
his  observation  that  the  negroes  in  our  colonies  endure  a  slavery 
more  complete,  and  attended  with  far  worse  circumstances,  than 
what  any  people  in  their  condition  suffer  in  any  other  part  of  the 
world,  or  have  suffered  in  any  other  period  of  time." 

In  the  year  1766  Bishop  Warburton  preached  a  sermon  before 
the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  in  which  he  dealt 
with  slavery  and  the  slave  trade  with  an  unsparing  hand.  He 
said  :  "From  the  free  savages  (the  Indian  tribes)  I  now  come  to 
the  savages  in  bonds.  By  these  I  mean  the  vast  multitudes  yearly 
stolen  from  the  opposite  continent,  and  sacrificed  by  the  colonists 
to  their  great  idol,  the  god  of  gain.  But  what  says  these  wor- 
shipers of  Mammon?  '  They  are  our  own  property  which  we  offer 
up!'  Gracious  God!  To  talk,  as  of  herds  of  cattle,  of  rational 
creatures,  endowed  with  all  our  faculties,  possessing  all  our 
qualities  but  that  of  color,  our  brethren  both  by  nature  and  grace, 
shocks  all  the  feelings  of  humanity,  and  the  dictates  of  common 
sense.  But  alas!  what  is  there  in  the  abuse  of  society  which  does 
not  shock  them?  Yet  nothing  is  more  certain  in  itself,  and  appa- 
rent to  all,  than  that  the  infamous  traffic  in  slaves  directly 
infringes  both  divine  and  human  law.  Nature  created  man  free, 
and  grace  invites  him  to  assert  his  freedom.  In  excuse  for  this 
violation  it  has  been  pretended  that  though  these  miserable  out- 
casts of  humanity  have  been  torn  from  their  homes  and  native 
country  by  fraud  and  violence,  yet  they  thereby  become  the 
happier,  and  their  condition  more  eligible.  But  who  are  you, 
who  pretend  to  judge  of  another  man's  happiness?  Of  that  state 
which  each  man,  under  the  guidance  of  his  Maker,  forms  for 
himself,  and  not  one  man  for  another?  To  know  what  constitutes 
mine  or  your  happiness  is  the  sole  prerogative  of  Him  who  created 
us  and  cast  us  in  so  various  and  different  moulds.  Did  your 
sla^'cs  ever  complain  to  you  of  their  unhappiness  amidst  their 
native  woods  and  deserts?    Or  rather  let  me  ask,  did  they  ever 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaa^es. 


49 


cease  complaining  of  their  condition  nnder  3^ou,  their  lordly 
masters,  where  the}"  see  indeed  the  accommodations  of  civil  life 
but  see  them  pass  to  others,  themselves  inibenefitted  by  them? 
Be  so  gracious,  then,  ye  petty  tj^rants  over  human  freedom,  to  let 
your  slaves  judge  for  themselves,  what  it  is  that  makes  their  own 
happiness,  and  see  if  they  do  not  place  it  in  their  return  to  their 
own  country,  rather  than  in  the  contemplation  of  j^our  grandeur, 
of  which  their  misery  makes  so  large  a  part ;  a  return  so  passion- 
atel}^  longed  for,  that  despairing  of  happiness  here,  that  is,  of 
escaping  the  chains  of  their  cruel  task-masters,  they  console  them- 
selves with  feigning  it  to  be  the  gracious  reward  of  heaven  in 
their  future  state." 

Besides  the  captive  Africans  who  were  brought  direct  from 
their  native  shores  to  become  serfs  in  the  New  AVorld  there  were 
divers  ways  in  which  the  institution  of  slavery  was  promulgated 
and  fastened  upon  the  pioneer  settlers  of  nearl}"  all  the  lands  in 
the  western  hemisphere.  To  follow  in  detail  these  methods  would 
be  to  write  a  volume  equal  in  extent  to  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
But  through  all  the  vicissitudes  of  the  poor  negroes,  who  were  con- 
stantly made  the  hewers  of  wood  and  the  drawers  of  water  for  the 
white  race,  as  the  settlements  of  North  and  South  America  and 
adjacent  islands  increased,  there  were  heard  the  voices  of  good 
men  protesting  against  the  wrong  of  slaver}^  in  the  abstract  and 
the  horrors  of  the  slave  trade  in  particular.  Among  the  noble 
men  of  England  who  interested  themselves  in  their  day  for  the 
betterment  of  the  condition  of  the  slaves,  who  became  conspicuous 
by  their  determined  opposition  to  the  slave  trade,  may  be 
mentioned  Granville  Sharp,  who  was  instrumental,  in  1772,  in 
carrying  the  case  of  a  slave,  taken  by  his  m.aster  from  Jamaica  to 
England,  before  the  court  of  the  Kings  Bench,  and  there  procured 
the  decision  of  the  judges  "  that  as  soon  as  ever  an 3^  slave  set  his 
foot  upon  English  territory-  lie  became  free."  Immediately  after 
the  trial  Mr.  Sharp  wrote  to  Lord  North,  then  principal  minister 
of  state,  warning  him,  in  the  most  earnest  manner,  to  abolish 
immediately  both  the  trade  and  the  slavery  of  the  human  species 
in  all  the  British  dominions,  as  utterly  irreconcilable  with  the 
principles  of  the  British  constitution  and  the  established  religion 
of  the  land. 

Another  powerful  advocate  of  the  national  rights  of  man, 
appertaining  to  the  black  as  well  as  the  white  race,  appeared  in 
the  person  of  John  AYesley,  the  celebrated  divine.  In  1774  this 
pious  man  took  up  the  cause  of  the  enslaved  African  race.  He 


50 


Vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


had  been  to  America  and  had  seen  and  pitied  the  hard  condition 
of  the  slaves  within  the  colonies  of  the  mother  country.  He 
published  a  work  entitled  "  Thonghts  on  Slavery,"  which  exerted 
a  salutary  influence  upon  the  public  mind  in  riviting  the  convic- 
tion that  slavery  was  wrong,  the  slave  trade  abominable  and  that 
both  ought  to  be  exterminated. 

The  Quakers  of  America  early  manifested  a  deep  and  com- 
passionate feeling  towards  slaves  within  the  American  colonies, 
although  many  of  them  became  possessed  of  slave  property  upon 
their  settlement  in  this  country.  But  it  must  be  said  of  them  that 
they  treated  their  slaves  with  great  kindness.  Notwithstanding 
their  mildness  toward  them,  and  the  consequent  content  of  the 
slaves  themselves,  some  of  the  society  began  to  entertain  doubts 
in  regard  to  the.  right  of  holding  negroes  in  bondage  at  all. 
Almost  a  century  before  the  visit  of  John  Wesley  to  America 
some  of  the  German  Quakers,  who  had  followed  William  Penn  to 
America,  urged  in  the  yearly  meeting  of  Pennsylvania,  the  incon- 
sistency of  buying,  selling  and  holding  man  'in  slaver}^,  with  the 
principles  of  the  Christian  religion.  At  a  later  date  the  yearly 
meeting  for  that  province  took  up  the  subject  as  a  public  concern, 
with  the  result  that  the  society  declared  against  the  future  impor- 
tations of  African  slaves,  and  the  members  were  charged  to  be 
particularly  attentive  to  the  spiritual  and  temporal  welfare  of 
those  held  in  possession.  For  a  series  of  years  this  solicitude  was 
renewed  in  the  annual  meetings,  in  fact  being  continued  until  the 
institution  of  slavery  had  practically  disappeared  within  the 
province  of  Penns3dvania. 

In  the  3^ear  1772  a  favorable  disposition  towards  the  condi- 
tion of  the  slaves  became  manifest  in  several  of  the  colonies.  The 
House  of  Burgesses  of  Virginia  of  that  year  presented  a  petition  to 
the  King  of  Great  Britain  beseeching  his  majesty  to  remove  all 
those  restraints  on  his  governors  of  that  colony  which  forbade 
their  assent  to  such  laws  as  might  check  that  inhuman  and 
impolitic  commerce — the  slave  trade.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that 
the  refusal  of  the  British  government  to  permit  the  colonists  to 
exclude  slaves  from  among  them  b}^  law,  was  afterwards  enumer- 
ated by  Thomas  Jefferson  among  the  public  reasons  for  separating 
from  the  mother  country  after  the  war  of  the  revolution  had 
broken  out . 

In  Mr.  Jefferson's  "  Correspondence,"  there  appears  afac-simile 
of  a  portion  of  the  original  draft  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, which  was  stricken  out  of  that  document  when  it  was 


VArOHAX  S  PLEA  FOR  THE   OLD  SLAVES. 


51 


adopted  in  committee.  The  gentlemen  selected  in  congress  to  pre- 
pare a  formal  document  setting  forth  reasons  wh}'  the  colonies 
should  become  free  and  independent  states,  were  John  Adams, 
Thomas  Jefferson,  Benjamin  Franklin,  Roger  Sherman  and  Robert 
R.  Livingston.  To  Mr.  Jefferson  was  assigned  the  important  dut,y 
of  preparing  the  form  of  the  declaration.  In  his  draft,  submitted 
to  the  whole  committee,  appears  the  following: 

He  (King  George  III.  of  England)  has  waged  civil  war  against  human 
nature  itself,  violating  the  most  sacred  rights  of  life  and  liberty  intlie  per- 
sons of  a  distant  people,  who  never  oii'ended  him:  captivating  and  carr^^- 
ing  them  into  slavery  in  another  hemisphere,  or  to  incur  miserable  death 
in  their  transportation  thither.  This  piratical  Avarfare,  the  opprobrium 
of  infidel  powers,  is  the  warfare  of  the  Christian  King  of  Great  Britain; 
determined  to  keep  open  a  market  where  MEN  should  be  bought  and  sold, 
he  prostituted  his  negative  for  suppressing  ever}'  legislative  attempt  to 
prohibit  or  restrain  this  execrable  commerce;  and,  that  this  assemblage 
of  horrors  might  want  no  fact  of  distinguished  dye,  he  is  now  exciting 
those  very  people  to  rise  in  arms  among  us.  and  to  purchase  that  libert}^ 
of  which  he  has  deprived  them,  by  murdering  the  people  upon  whom  he 
has  obtruded  them,  thus  paying  off  former  crimes,  committed  against  tlie 
liberties  of  one  people  with  crimes  which  he  urges  them  to  commit  against 
the  lives  of  another. 

It  does  not  appear  in  Mr.  Jefferson's  works  why  the  foregoing 
indictment  againt  the  -English  crown  was  stricken  from  the  im- 
mortal declaration,  or  which  member  of  the  committee  moved  its 
expurgation.  His  wish  not  to  reflect  upon  any  of  his  co-patriots 
in  an  hour  of  emergency  no  doubt  prevented  any  personal  refer- 
ence to  men  on  that  solemn  occasion.  But  all  Americans  know, 
and  the  world  knows,  that  Thomas  Jefferson  was  a  sincere  devotee 
of  personal  as  well  as  collective  liberty,  and  when  he  penned  that 
other  great  truth,  which  stands  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
as  accepted,  approved  and  signed  in  the  Colonial  Congress,  that 
"  all  men  are  born  equal  and  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  cer- 
tain inalienable  rights,  among  which  are  life,  libert}-  and  the  pur- 
suit of  happiness,"  he  meant  the  negro  slave  to  be  included  side 
b}"  side  witli  the  white  master,  whose  freedom  was  acknowledged 
b}'  all  the  world. 

The  facts  set  forth  in  this  narrative  arnph^  demonstrate  that 
there  was  a  strong  sentiment  both  in  Europe  and  America  looking 
to  the  curtailment  of  the  slave  power,  which  readih^  found  expres- 
sion in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  though  not  in  the  posi- 
tive form  that  Mr.  Jefferson  desired.  It  is,  however,  enough  to 
know  that  when  the  cradle  of  American  freedom  was  rocked  our 
patriot  forefathers  gaA^e  utterance  to  sentiments  respecting  uni- 
versal liberty  that  included  all  races  of  men  regardless  of  color. 


52 


Vau'^han's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


From  that  day  to  the  present  there  have  been  earnest  men  who 
have  contended  sincerely  for  the  abridgment  of  slavery  in  every 
land . 

Soon  after  the  close  of  the  revolutionary  war  the  efforts  of 
Wilberforce  and  the  noble  men  who  agreed  with  him  in  opinion 
secured  the  settled  opposition  of  Great  Britain  to  the  continuance 
of  the  African  slave  trade.  The  adoption  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  was  the  direct  means  of  prohibiting  the  lawful 
introduction  of  impressed  slaves  into  this  countr3^,  and  of  putting 
an  estoppel  upon  the  trade  altogether  after  1808. 

In  the  mean  time  President  Jefferson  concluded  negotiations 
with  Napoleon  Bonaparte  whereby  the  territory  of  Louisiana  was 
purchased,  which  included  nearly  all  the  territory  belonging  to  the 
United  States,  after  the  date  of  the  purchase,  lying  west  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi river  that  gave  earl}^  promise  of  seeking  statehood  within 
the  Union.  The  cession  of  the  Northwest  Territor}^  to  the  United 
Spates  had  been  accompanied  by  an  agreement  in  the  congress  of 
the  confederation  prior  to  the  adoption  of  the  constitution  that 
S-ich  territor}^  might  be  erected  into  seventeen  states,  when  the  pop- 
ulation would  admit  of  the  formation  of  new  states.  Mr.  Jefferson 
was  chairman  of  the  committee  cliarged  wi  ll  framing  an  ordinance 
for  the  government  of  this  vast  area  ;  and  during  the  session  of 
1784  he  reported  such  an  ordinance  which  contained  the  following 
rale: 

That  after  the  year  1800  of  the  Christian  era,  there  shall  be  neither 
Slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  in  any  of  said  states,  otherwise  than  in 
punishment  of  crimes  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  convicted  to  be 
personally  guilt}^ 

The  rule  was  not  then  adopted,  but  in  the  last  congress  of  the 
confederation  Nathan  Dane,  of  Massachusetts,  reported  an 
ordinance,  July  11,  1787,  for  the  government  of  the  territory  of 
the  United  States  northwest  of  the  Ohio  river,  in  which  the 
Jeifersonian  interdiction  of  slavery  was  repeated,  and  it  then  re- 
ceived concurrence.  All  the  great  northwest  was  thereafter  dedi- 
cated to  freedom  and  became  free  soil. 

It  naturally  follows  that  when  the  Louisiana  purchase  was  made 
there  was  a  strong  feeling  manifested  to  extend  the  Jeffersonian 
proviso  to  that  territory.  Unfortunately  slavery  existed  therein 
before  the  purchase,  and  it  could  not  be  eradicated.  But  the  agi- 
tation continued;  and  when  the  inhabitants  of  Missouri  formed  a 
state  government,  the  same  being  a  part  of  the  Louisiana  purchase, 
and  applied  for  admission  into  the  Union,  during  the  month  of 
March,  1818,  the  fact  that  the  constitution  of  the  new  state  recog- 


VAUGHAN  S  PLEA  FOR  THE   OLD  SLAVES. 


53 


nized  slavery  caused  the  beginning  of  a  fierce  agitation  which  con- 
tinued with  more  or  less  violence  for  nearly  half  a  century.  Mis- 
souri was  not  successful  in  her  application  at  that  time.  In  the 
next  Congress,  ^November  16,  1820,  Missouri  again  knocked  for 
admission.  The  debate  that  ensued  was  long,  fierce  and  acrimo- 
nious; but  it  was  finally  terminated  February  27,  1821,  by  the  ad- 
mission of  Missouri  in  pursuance  of  a  compromise,  which  provided 
that  in  the  erection  of  future  new  states  those  l^'ing  north  of  the 
parallel  of  36°  30'  should  be  free  states,  and  those  lying  south  of 
that  parallel  might  be  free  or  sl^ve  as  the  people  should  elect. 

The  acceptance  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  settled  the  status 
of  slaver}^  extension  for  thirt}^  3'ears.  In  1850,  when  California 
applied  for  admission,  the  whole  question  of  slaver}^  extension  was 
opened  up,  and  with  reference  to  the  territory  acquired  from 
Mexico  at  the  conclusion  of  the  war  with  that  government.  Four 
years  later  the  formation  of  territorial  governments  for  Kansas  and 
Nebraska  revived  the  anti-slavery  agitation  with  great  bitterness. 
The  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  fired  the  northern  heart  to 
an  extent  that  was  not  quieted  again .  The  agitation  was  continued 
unceasingly^  and  finally^  culminated  in  the  election  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  on  a  platform  opposed  to  the  acceptance  of  additional 
slave  states  in  the  Union.  The  civil  war  followed,  and  afterwards 
emancipation  followed  as  a  natural  result. 

The  purpose  of  this  imperfect  review  has  been  to  show  that 
there  has  ahvays  been  an  able  and  educated  element  in  this  coun- 
try opposed  to  the  bondage  and  oppression  of  the  negro  race,  and 
that  throughout  the  vicissitudes  in  the  career  of  the  black  man  as 
a  slave,  he  has  had  powerful  and  eloquent  champions,  pleading 
with  earnestness  and  fervor  for  his  release  from  the  galling  chains 
of  in  voluntary^  servitude.  At  last  the  day  of  freedom  dawned  in 
an  unforseen  and  inexplicable  manner.  It  came  amidst  the  crash 
of  systems  that  had  been  maintained  in  this,  land  for  three  hundred 
years.  It  came  in  the  din,  the  smoke  and  the  carnage  of  battle. 
It  came  in  a  torrent  of  liuman  blood,  and  through  the  havoc  of 
might}^  armies.  It  came  as  the  will  of  Almighty  God  who  selected 
this  devastating  agency  to  let  the  oppressed  go  free. 

It  is  scarcely^  necessary^  to  say  that  thousands  of  the  men  of  the 
South  would  have  willingly  emancipated  their  slaves  long  years  be- 
fore the  tocsin  of  war  was  sounded ,  but  they  were  deterred  there- 
from in  consequence  of  their  pecuniary  inability  to  set  them  up  in 
life  and  make  suitable  provision  for  their  maintenance  in  the  first 
months  or  .years  of  their  struggle  for  existence.    When  emancipa- 


54 


vaughan's  flea  for  the  old  slaves. 


lion  was  confirmed  in  the  dread  circumstance  of  war  and  subjuga- 
tion, there  was  nothing  to  do  but  to  accept  the  inevitable,  and  to 
recognize  the  fact  that  human  slavery  was  a  doomed  institution 
for  all  the  years  of  coming  time.  The  men  and  women  who  were 
baptized  in  blood  unto  freedom  went  forth  owing  allegiance  to 
none. 

While  blessing  the  day  that  has  wiped  out  the  curse  of  slavery 
from  the  escutcheon  of  our  fair  land,  it  is  sad  to  contemplate  that 
the  wards  of  the  nation  are  in  a  worse  state  to-day,  so  far  as  the 
personal  comfort  of  thousands  and»tens  of  thousands  of  them  are 
concerned,  than  they  were  in  the  days  of  their  servitude.  This  is 
especially  true  of  the  old  and  infirm.  In  the  hope  that  the  gov- 
ernment, which  our  fathers  created  and  their  sons  here  preserved, 
will  dare  to  be  just  in  defiance  of  obloquy,  prejudice  and  ridicule, 
this  humble  appeal  is  made  to  those  in  place  and  power,  for  justice 
to  the  race  that  lias  been  liberated  from  bondage,  only  that  they 
may  live  in  want  and  misery  and  die  at  last  in  nakedness  and  dis- 
tress. Let  the  government  be  just.  Generosity  is  not  asked  nor 
sought.  Do  Avhat  is  right,  and  let  the  world  know  that  the 
stars  and  stripes  constitute  the  emblem  of  a  nation  that  has  the 
courage  to  correct  the  errors  of  ages.  Let  the  spirit  of  the 
Vauglian  ex-slave  pension  bill  become  the  law  of  the  land . 

As  a  fitting  finale  to  this  petition  for  the  rights  of  the  slaves 
of  olden  days  the  following  editorial  from  the  columns  of  the 
Omaha  Daily  Democrat^  of  Sunday ,  August  13,  1890,  is  copied. 
W.  R.  Yawghan  is  president  of  the  Democrat  Publishing  Company. 

BE  JUST  AND  FEAR  NOT. 

There  are  plainly  those  in  political  as  well  as  in  journalistic  life  who 
fear  to  discuss  with  fairness  the  provisions  of  Vaughanf.  Freedmen's 
Pension  bill;  and  all  such  seek  to  underrate  its  importance  by  the  idle 
declaration  that  it  is  a  temporary  expedient  in  government  policy  that 
will  die  under  the  breath  of  ridicule.  A  half  century  ago  the  same  flimsy 
excuse  for  an  argument  was  used  by  the  public  press  and  by  political 
orators  when  James  G.  Birney  entered  the  political  arena  as  the  candidate 
of  the  liberty  party  for  the  presidency.  It  was  asserted  that  the  meager 
support  which  Mr.  Birney  received  in  1840 — he  had  but  little  more  than 
7,000  votes  in  all  the  states — would  deter  the  Garrison  school  of  aboli- 
tionists from  maldng  another  exhibition  of  their  weakness,  and  that  they 
would  be  glad  to  retire  from  public  view  never  to  expose  themselves  to 
familiar  gaze  again.  But  alas  for  human  expectation  when  based  upon 
nothing  at  all!  The  movement  inaugurated  by  Birney,  Garrison  and  their 
compatriots  had  substantial  merit,  and  it  gained  accessions  as  the  cause 
was  discussed.  In  1844  James  G.  Birney  was  again  a  presidential  candidate 
and  in  that  year  he  was  given  62,000  votes,  being  considerably  more  than 


VAUGHAN  S   PLEA  FOR  THE   OLD  SLATES. 


55 


the  plurality  wliich  James  K.  Polk  received  over  Henry  Clay.  The  liberty 
part}'  began  to  be  a  noticeable  feature  in  the  affairs  of  the  nation. 

In  1848  Van  Buren  and  Adams,  under  the  name  and  guise  of  the  free- 
soil  party,  received  291,000  votes  in  the  several  states.  This  was  merely 
the  old  abolition  party  under  a  new  name.  The  antipathj^  against  the 
institution  of  slavery  continued  to  spread,  and  finally  culminated  in  the 
success  of  tlie  republican  party  and  in  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves 
under  the  influences  of  a  condition  of  Avar.  Less  than  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury after  Birney  and  Garrison  flung  the  banner  of  universal  freedom  to 
the  breeze  the  institution  of  slavery  had  ceased  to  exist  in  the  length 
and  breadth  of  our  fair  land. 

History,  as  Mr.  Lincoln  once  said,  is  merely  repeating  itself.  The 
demand  for  pensions  in  behalf  of  the  former  subjects  of  slavery  is  so  fair 
and  just  that  no  opposition  to  tlie  fundamental  idea  can  weaken  its  merit; 
and  attempts  at  ridicule  will  only  give  it  a  firmer  hold  upon  the  sense  of 
justice  entertained  by  a  fair-minded  people.  In  the  face  of  weak  preten- 
sion toward  expression  of  contempt  it  will  grow  by  day  and  by  night  until 
it  has  taken  such  deep  root  in  the  public  mind  that  the  law-making  power 
of  the  United  States  will  be  glad  to  give  it  heed  and  obedience.  In  the 
poetic  language  of  Charles  Mackey  it  will  become 

"The  Voice  of  the  Tbies." 

"  Day  unto  day  uttereth  speech — 
Be  wise,  oh  ye  nations,  and  hear 
What  yesterday  telleth  to-daj- — 

What  to-daj'  to-morrow  will  preach. 
A  change  cometh  over  the  sphere, 
And  the  old  goeth  down  to-day. 
A  new  light  hath  dawned  on  the  darkness  of  yore, 
And  men  shall  be  slaves  and  oppressors  no  more. 

"  Hark  to  the  throbbing  of  thought 
In  the  breast  of  the  wakening  world; 
Over  land,  over  sea  it  hath  come. 

The  serf  that  was  yesterday  bought, 
To-day  his  defiance  hath  hurled — 
Xo  more  is  his  slavery  dumb — 
He's  broken  away  from  the  fetters  that  bind. 
And  he  lifts  a  bold  arm  for  the  rights  of  mankind. 

"The  voice  of  opinion  hath  grown — 
'Twas  3'esterday  changeful  and  weak — 
Like  the  voice  of  a  boy  m  his  prime. 
To-day  it  hath  taken  the  tone 
Of  an  orator,  worthy  to  speak —  ^ 
Who  knows  the  demand  of  his  time! 
To-morrow  'twill  sound  in  the  nation's  dull  ear 
Like  the  trump  of  a  seraph  to  startle  our  sphere. 

"  Be  wise,  oh  ye  rulers  of  earth! 
And  shut  not  your  ears  to  his  voice, 
Nor  allow  it  to  warn  you  in  vain. 

True  Freedom,  of  yesterday's  birth, 
Will  march  on  its  way  and  rejoice, 
And  never  be  conquered  again. 
This  day  hath  a  tongue — aye.  the  hours  have  speech — 
Wise,  wise  will  ye  be  if  ye  learn  what  they  teach." 


56 


VAUGHAN  S  PLEA  FOR  THE   OLD  SLAVES. 


A  question  has  arisen  as  to  the  history  and  character  of  the 
man  who  is  willing  to  devote  his  time  and  means  to  the  promulga- 
tion of  a  law  that  will  do  justice  to  the  negro,  without  fee  or  re- 
ward to  himself.  That  man  is  not  ashamed  of  his  name  or  of 
his  public  record,  as  far  as  he  has  one. 

The  following  biographical  sketch  of 

"WALTER    RALEIGH  VAUGHAN 

was  puhlished  in  the  Omaha  Daily  Democrat  of  Sunday,  June 
20,  1890. 

Since  the  appearance  of  the  article  given  to  the  public  last  Sunday 
morning,  proposing  a  pension  to  freedmen  restored  to  liberty  from  a 
former  condition"of  involuntary  servitude,  a  large  number  of  letters  have 
been  received  from  all  quarters  of  the  union,  asking  concerning  the 
antecedents  of  ex-Maj^or  Vaughan  and  requesting  a  statement  of  the 
manner  of  man  he  is.  In  answer  to  these  interrogatories  a  brief 
biographical  sketch  is  given  and  a  portrait  of  the  man. 

Walter  Raleigh  Vaughan  was  born  in  Petersburgh,  Va.,  May  12,  1848. 
His  parents  moved  to  Montgomery,  Ala.,  when  the  subject  of  this  sketch 
was  about  one  year  old.  His  mother  died  in  his  second  year,  and  at  her 
request  the  babe  was  sent  to  reside  with  an  uncle  in  North  Carolina,  the 
Rev.  R.  C.  Maynard,  who  was  a  minister  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  per- 
suasion. At  the  age  of  thirteen  years  young  Vaughan  returned  to  his 
father's  home  in  Alabama. 

From  his  early  boyhood  Mr.  Vaughan  became  interested  in  labor  and 
economic  questions  growing  out  of  the  condition  of  the  laboring  classes, 
upon  whom  his  young  eyes  were  naturally  turned,  white  and  black  alike. 
Perhaps  his  first  effort  in  the  direct  interest  of  the  negro  slave  was  made 
when,  as  a  half-grown  lad,  he  appealed  to  his  father  to  give  the  negroes 
in  bondage  the  half  or  the  whole  of  Saturday  of  each  week,  to  be  used  as 
his  own  time  for  private  work  or  personal  recreation.  In  all  the  later 
avocations  of  life  Mr.  Vaughan  has  contributed  time  and  money  whenever 
any  important  movement  has  been  on  the  tapis  in  promoting  the  move- 
ments and  wishes  of  the  working  classes.  As  an  official  and  as  a  news- 
paper publisher,  as  well  as  in  the  private  walks  of  life,  he  has  advocated 
and  aided  the  cause  of  labor  and  the  aims  of  the  men  who  have  earned 
their  own  subsistence. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  of  the  rebellion  young  Vaughan  entered  the 
Crittenden  commercial  college  of  Philadelphia,  where  he  received  a 
business  education.  He  then  took  up  his  residence  at  St.  Joseph,  Mo., 
from  whence  he  came  to  Omaha  early  in  1868  and  booked  himself  as  a 
guest  of  the  old  Herndon  house  at  the  foot  of  Farnam  street,  now  the 
headquarters  of  the  Union  Pacific  railway  company.  After  a  brief 
sojourn  he  located  at  Council  Bluffs,  Iowa,  where  he  opened  a  business 
college.  In  that  city,  May  12,  1869,  being  the  twenty-first  anniversary 
of  his  birth,  he  was  united  in  marriage  with  Miss  Delia  De  Vol,  daughter 
of  one  of  the  oldest  residents. 

In  March,  1881,  Mr.  Vaughan  was  elected  mayor  of  Council  BluflFs, 
running  as  the  regular  democratic  candidate,  by  a  majority  of  thirty-six 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slates.  57 

votes.  In  the  meantime  he  had  been  actively  engaged  in  business,  a  por- 
tion of  it  devoted  to  journalism,  for  wliich  profession  he  has  always  had  a 
pencliant.  In  18^4  he  was  again  elected  mayor  over  a  strong  competitor 
by  a  majority  of  538  votes.  AVhile  serving  as  mayor,  Gov.  Larrabee,  of 
Iowa  duly  appointed  and  commissioned  him  as  one  of  the  state  curators, 
wliicli  position  he  resigned  to  remove  to  Omaha. 

During  Mayor  Vaughan's  first  t3rm  in  tlie  mayoralty  an  unpre- 
cedented flood  occurred  in  the  Missouri  river  and  all  the  lowlands  were 
flooded  and  many  families  ruined  by  the  devastation.  Mayor  Vaughan 
came  to  their  rescue,  had  them  gathered  in  boats  from  their  flooded  quar- 
ters and  had  tiiem  provided  with  food  and  other  necessaries.  As  his  term 
was  about  expiring,  tlie  well-remembered  strikes  were  taking  place  in 
Omaha,  wherein  an  old  man  named  Armstrong  was  bayonetted  by  a  sol- 
dier without  cause  or  provocation.  Mayor  Vaughan  at  orice  sent  a  letter 
of  condolence  to  the  widow,  together  with  a  warmnty  deed  to  a  residence 
lot  in  Council  Bluffs,  where  tlie  lady  could  make  her  home  after  her  cruel 
bereavement. 

During  the  second  term  of  his  mayoralty,  in  company  with  Mr. 
Thomas  Officer,  steps  were  taken  to  establish  the  Thompson-Houston 
electric  liirht  system  in  Council  BIujTs.  the  twain  being  sole  owners. 
Liter  on,  with  Mr.  J.  C.  Regan  for  a  partner,  Mr.  Vaughan  secured  a  char- 
ter and  established  tlie  electric  light  system  of  Omaha.  His  w^hole  life 
has  been  checkered  with  business  enterprises,  having  their  ups  and  downs, 
but  through  all  Mayor  Vaughan  has  been  steadfast  in  his  adherence  to  the 
rights  of  the  working  classes. 

After  retiring  from  the  mayoralty  of  Council  Bluffs.  Mr.  Vaughan 
resumed  his  residence  in  Omaha,  in  which  city  he  has  had  the  general  con- 
trol and  management  of  the  Omaha  Daily  Democrat.  In  his  caj^acity  as  a 
journalist  he  has  now  revived  a  project  conceived  by  him  years  ago  to 
have  congress  grant  proper  pensions  to  ex-slaves,  whose  early  lives  were 
made  the  subject  of  barter  by  citizens  and  taxation  by  the  government. 
On  this  subject  he  carried  on  an  extensive  correspondence  with  public 
men  seven  years  ago.  Among  them  with  President  Harrison,  who  was 
then  a  senator  from  Indiana.  ZSTone  of  the  parties  addressed  appeared  to 
view  the  project  with  favor.  But.  steadfast  in  his  faith  and  in  liis  belief 
in  what  he  has  conceived  to  be  right,  Mr.  Vaughan  proposes  to  go  on  in 
the  line  marked  out  until  justice  shall  be  done  to  a  downtrodden  people. 
It  is  only  a  question  of  time  when  his  efforts  shall  succeed.  An  era  differ- 
ent from  being  made  the  hewers  of  wood  and  the  drawers  of  water  for  de- 
signing politicians  is  about  to  dawn  upon  the  oppressed  negro  race.  It 
will  be  an  era  of  substantial  prosperity. 

As  to  the  jDersonality  of  AV.  E.  Vaugliaii.  it  may  be  added  that  he  was 
not  a  soldier  during  the  late  war.  being  then  too  j'oung  to  bear  arms.  His 
father  and  three  brothers  were,  however,  gallant  soldiers  in  the  southern 
army.  After  the  war  of  the  rebellion  had  closed.  Ms  elder  brother,  Ver- 
non H.  Vaughan.  was  made  secretary  of  Utah  territory,  at  the  request  of 
Robert  M.  Douglas  (son  of  the  great  Stephen  A.  Douglas\,  then  private 
secretary  of  President  Grant,  and  later  United  States  marshal  in  North 
Carolina.  The  appointment  was  made  by  President  Grant.  "When  Gov. 
Shafer,  of  Utah,  died,  the  president  telegraphed  the  appointment  of  V.  H. 
Vaughan  to  fill  the  vacancy  without  waiting  to  be  officially  informed  that 


58 


VAUGHAN  S  TLEA  FOR  THE  OLD  SLAVES. 


an  appointment  was  required.  G  o vernor  Vaughan  died  in  later  years  m  Cali- 
fornia. Mr.  W.  E.  Vaug-han  is  now  in  his  426.  year,  is  the  father  of  five 
sons  and  three  daughters,  all  healthy,  handsome  children,  and  they  are 
heart  and  soul  with  their  father  in  his  work  for  justice. 

It  is  proper  to  say  that  since  arriving  at  man's  estate  W.  R.  Vaughan 
has  devoted  much  time  and  money  in  the  upbuilding  of  benevolent  and 
fraternal  institutions.  He  was  Noble  Grand  Arch  of  the  United  Ancient 
Order  of  Druids  for  the  State  of  Iowa,  and  Grand  Prelate  of  the  Knights 
of  Pythias  organization  for  the  same  state,  and  he  gave  years  of  his  best 
work  to  increase  tliQ  powers  and  benefits  of  Odd  Fellowship  in  the  west, 
having  been  a  patriarch  since  tho  age  of  21  years. 

Mr.  Vaughan  has  a  surviving  brother,  Alonzo  Vaughan,  now  residing 
near  Selma,  Alabama.  He  has  large  landed  interests  in  that  vicinity  and 
also  conducts  a  mercantile  business. 

Let  the  writer  make  a  closing  appeal  to  the  Christian  people 
and  the  Benevolent  orders  of  the  United  States  by  asking  you 
to  read 

WHY  THK  IREEDMEN's  PENSION  BILL  SHOULD   BECOME   A  LAW. 

1 .  It  will  be  a  measure  of  recognition  of  the  inhumanity 
practiced  by  the  government  in  the  holding,  for  a  century,  of 
men  and  women  as  slaves  in  defiance  of  human  right. 

2.  It  will  be  a  slight  recompense  to  emancipated  freemen  for 
the  error  of  the  government  in  permitting  slavery  to  exist  on  the 
soil  of  a  people  whose  fundamental  idea  is  the  liberty  of  the 
citizen . 

3.  It  will  afford  to  foreign  nations  a  comple-e  refutation  of 
the  sentiment,  often  advanced,  that  American  Freedom  has  been 
merely  a  disguised  form  of  tyranny  whereof  human  slavery  was 
an  exemplification. 

4.  It  will  manifest  to  the  civilized  world  the  important  truth 
that  the  Sons  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Republic  associate  liberty  and 
justice  together  as  inseparable  in  the  administration  of  a  govern- 
ment of  the  people. 

5.  It  will  afford  a  guaranty  to  other  nations,  struggling  for 
popular  independence,  that  the  real  strength  of  a  free  people  lies 
in  their  ability  to  do  right  at  all  times  and  under  all  circumstances. 

6.  It  will  add  to  the  material  wealth  of  a  great  nation  by 
giving  to  persons  having  a  claim  de  jure  against  tlie  government 
to  put  themselves  in  a  position  of  complete  equality  before  the 
law  with  other  citizens  whose  personal  rights  have  not  been 
circumscribed . 

7.  It  will  enable  an  impoverished  race,  reduced  to  penury 
through  no  fault  of  their  own,  to  place  themselves  in  a  position  of 


VAUGHAN  S  PLEA  FOR  THE   OLD  SLAVES. 


59 


reasonable  independence  in  their  struggle  for  existence  and 
recognition  in  general  business  affairs. 

8 .  It  will  add  to  the  national  wealth  of  a  productive  section 
of  the  Union  by  enabling  an  important  factor  of  its  population 
to  pursue  business  without  constant  appeals  to  public  charitj^. 

9.  It  will  distribute  a  large  addition  to  Southern  capital 
among  a  class  of  inhabitants  who  have  been  debarred  hitherto 
from  contributing  to  the  general  welfare  of  their  section. 

10.  It  will  enable  the  emancipated  race  to  contribute  to  the 
prosperity  of  their  several  states  and  to  pursue  avocations  denied 
to  persons  wholly  dependent  upon  their  daily  toil  for  support. 

11.  It  will  have  a  tendency  to  break  down  a  residuary  sense 
of  race  oppression  which  may  have  been  fostered  by  means  of  a 
condition  of  dependence  but  a  shade  removed  from  the  former 
condition  of  slavery. 

12.  It  will  remove  the  last  barrier  existing  between  the 
races  which  has  made  political  solidity  an  objectionable  feature  in 
the  political  affairs  of  an}^  section  of  the  Great  American  Republic, 
and  in  coming  years  the  thought  of  a  solid  North  or  a  solid  South 
will  not  have  a  shade  of  sectional  support. 

13.  It  will  be  the  duty  of  public  men,  it  is  hoped,  occupying 
ever}^  station  of  life,  whether  in  the  Senate  or  the  House,  whether 
the  president  or  governors  of  states,  whether  judges  of  courts  or 
attorne3^s  at  the  bar,  whether  bankers  or  managers  of  great  corpo- 
rations of  ever}'  class,  to  ask  themselves  whether  this  claim  of 
one-tenth  of  the  population  of  the  United  States  ought  to  be  dis- 
regarded, and  whether  any  country  can  continually  prosper  that 
suffers  injustice  to  such  a  large  part  of  its  people. 

As  3'ou  should  be  judged  by  the  future  generations  of  3^our 
countrymen,  and  finally  by  the  All  Wise  Arbiter  of  human  ac- 
counts, you  are  adjured  not  to  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the  petition  now 
made  in  behalf  of  a  misused  and  selfishly  derided  race,  which  has 
been  emancipated  from  bondage  only  to  be  wedded  to  lives  of 
ignorance  and  a  condition  of  penury  bordering  upon  starvation. 
In  the  name  and  hope  of  that  justice  which  ought  to  animate  the 
hearts  of  all  true  men,  let  the  appeal  sink  deep  into  your  minds, 
to  the  end  that  you.  shall  heed  the  call  made  upon  3'ou  to  encour- 
age an  earnest  support  of  the  Freedmen's  Pension  Bill.  "As  ye 
would  that  men  should  do  to  3^ou ,  do  ye  even  so  to  them . ' ' 


MEX  OF  MEEIT. 


In  the  foregoing  pages  it  lias  been  intended  to  show,  in  as  briel 
a  compass  as  may  be  considered  consistent  with  a  proper  delinea- 
tion  of  tlie  general  character  of  negroes  as  citizens,  something  oi 
their  fealty  to  their  masters  in  the  da^^s  of  slavery,  their  devotion 
to  the  canse  of  liberty  when  they  found  the  way  opened  for  them 
to  become  freemen,  their  success  in  life  when  thrown  upon  their 
own  resourses,  their  heroic  bravery  in  the  Union  cause  when  mus- 
tered into  the  Federal  service  in  the  capacity  of  soldiers,  and  their 
honorable  reputation  as  statesmen  in  cases  where  colored  men  have 
been  called  into  the  political  field.  To  this  it  might  have  been 
added  that  ver}^  many  of  them  have  risen  to  distinction  in  the 
Christian  church  and  in  the  field  of  letters.  But  this  branch  ot 
the  subject  may  be  fittingly  discussed  in  a  series  of  brief  biograph- 
ical sketches  of  men  who  have  achieved  disf inction  in  their  capacity 
as  freemen  after  having  been  liberated  from  the  bonds  of  slaver}^. 

Before  entering  upon  the  narration  of  individual  cases  it  may 
be  proper  to  say  that  almost  every  communitj^  of  tlie  South  has 
v\ithin  it  some  x^erson  who  ought  to  rank  as  a  hero,  but  who 
is  unknown  to  fame  because  there  has  been  a  desire  to  enjoy  the 
blessings  of  domestic  life  rather  than  to  engage  in  a  calling  that 
would  bring  an  individual  into  x^ublic  notice.  Very  many  of  the 
emancipated  slaves  have  discovered  decided  financial  abilit}-,  and 
they  have  accumulated  large  wealth.  3Ir.  ]Montgomery,  who  was 
a  trusted  slave  of  Jefferson  Davis,  under  the  old  regime,  and  who 
acted  as  his  master^s  agent  in  very  many  important  commercial 
transactions,  accumulated  an  extensive  property  after  he  became  a 
freeman,  and  was  widely  known  as  an  enterprising  and  successful 
planter.  He  is  but  one  of  many  whose  talent  ran  in  the  line  of 
trade  and  traffic.  The  instances  of  slaves  made  freemen,  with  no 
resources  but  the  talents  which  God  gave  to  them,  but  who  have 
acquired  a  competency,  would  fill  a  large  volume. 

Recently  the  writer  was  much  interested  in  perusing  a  news- 
paper sketch  of  a  negro  lad  in  Mississippi,  who  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  his  mistress  by  marks  of  natural  shrewdness,  ^d  the  lady 
conceived  the  idea  of  his  being  made  useful  to  her  in  other  lines 
than  in  a  life  of  drudgery ,  provided  he  possessed  a  fair  degree  of 


62 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


cultivation.  She  thereupon  devoted  a  short  time  every  morning 
in  teaching  the  boy  to  read.  He  was  apt  in  learning,  and  in  a 
comparatively  short  time  he  had  acquired  the  rudiments  of  a  fair 
English  education,  with  no  other  instruction  than  such  as  his  mis- 
tress was  able  to  impart.  While  conditions  were  as  stated  the 
civil  war  broke  out.  The  adult  white  members  of  the  family  in 
which  the  young  negro  was  held  as  a  slave,  three  in  number,  all 
entered  the  Confederate  army,  and  in  the  vicissitudes  of  the  war 
they  all  fell.  Towards  the  close  of  hostilities  the  old  plantation 
suffered  from  the  incursions  of  contending  armies,  and  became  the 
prey  of  foraging  parties  on  both  sides.  Tribute  was  levied  first  by 
the  one  and  then  by  the  other.  In  a  season  of  ruthless  devastation 
the  improvements  upon  the  plantation  were  destro3^ed  by  fire. 
Peace  came,  but  the  old  mistress  was  impoverished  —  nothing  re- 
maining to  her  except  her  barren  acres.  These  were  mortgaged 
in  a  hopeless  struggle  to  improve  the  place  and  begin  life  anew; 
but  the  effort  was  fruitless,  and  the  mortgage,  in  due  time,  ate  up 
the  land.  The  plantation  passed  under  the  hammer.  In  some 
manner  the  slave  boy  of  former  years  learned  that  his  old  home 
was  to  be  sold,  and  that  his  kind  mistress  was  about  to  meet  the 
cold  charity  of  the  world  as  a  beggar.  Like  thousands  of  others 
of  his  luice  he  had  enlisted  in  the  Union  service,  and  after  discharge 
he  had  been  engaged  in  a  struggle  for  fortune,  and  had  been  moder- 
ately successful.  He  turned  his  face  toward  the  old  plantation  and 
arrived  at  the  county  seat  in  time  to  attend  the  sale.  As  if 
divinely  ordered  he  became  the  successful  bidder,  and  the  place 
whereon  his  eyes  first  beheld  the  light  of  day  became  his  property 
in  fee  simple.  His  next  step  was  to  hunt  up  his  old  mistress  and 
to  minister  to  her  comfort.  She  had  relatives  living  in  Virginia 
and  tlie  desire  of  her  heart  seemed  to  be  that  she  might  be  able  to 
reach  them  and  to  die  amidst  the  scenes  of  her  childhood.  Her  for- 
mer servant  provided  the  means,  and  the  lady  returned  to  her  na- 
tive state.  The  bright  boy  she  had  taught  to  read  became  a  planter 
on  the  estate  w'liere  he  had  once  toiled  as  a  slave.  He  rebuilt  the 
houses,  raised  his  crops  and  prospered  in  the  new  Mfe.  Every  year 
he  sent  a  handsome  donation  to  his  former  mistress,  which  he  in- 
creased in  amount  as  his  circumstances  improved.  The  3"0ung  man 
became  very  wealthy,  buying  other  plantations,  and  giving  em- 
ployment to  many  of  his  former  fellow-slaves.  He  still  lives  and 
is  rated  to  be  worth  a  half  million  of  money.  His  old  mistress  is 
also  living,  made  comfortable  in  lier  old  age  by  the  munificence  of 
the  man  who  once  ranked  as  one  of  her  chattels.  Every  month  this 


YAUGHAX'S  PLEA  FOR  THE   OLD  SLAVES. 


63 


kind-hearted  freedmaii  sends  his  old  mistress  a  check  for  one 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  and  he  will  continue  to  do  so  until 
she  is  called  to  the  better  land. 

This  incident  has  been  related  at  length  for  the  reason  that  it 
affords  a  good  illustration  of  that  genuine  love  which  is  an  inherent 
part  of  the  negro  character.  Unquestionably  there  are  to  be  found 
throughout  the  South  thousands  of  such  instances  of  unselfish  de- 
votion on  the  part  of  the  ex-slaves  for  the  surviving  members  of 
the  families  of  their  old-time  masters.  The  truth  of  such  an  as- 
sumption is  rendered  highly  probable  by  one  circumstance  that  ad- 
mits of  no  dispute.  The  great  mass  of  the  ex-slaves  have  remained 
within  near  api^roach  to  the  scenes  of  their  former  servitude .  They 
do  so  from  a  dislike  to  break  up  and  destroy  the  associations  of 
early  years.  Of  course  there  has  been  a  great  shifting  of  scenes  on 
the  part  of  mam^;  and  in  some  instances  mammoth  emigration 
associations  have  been  organized  of  those  who  have  sought  new 
homes  in  distant  states  and  territories.  But  the  number  who 
sought  new  locations  probabh"  amounts  to  no  more  than  ten 
per  cent,  of  the  emancipated  people. 

The  humble  walks  of  life  furnish  as  many  evidences  of  great 
hearts  among  the  southern  f  reedmen  as  may  be  shown  by  those  who 
have  risen  to  eminence  in  church  and  state.  But  being  unknown 
it  is  not  an  easy  matter  to  do  them  that  degree  of  justice  which 
their  gratitude  and  devotion  are  entitled  to  receive.  In  this  re- 
spect the  negro  stands  side  hy  side  with  the  white  man.  Of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  races,  and,  indeed,  of  all  races  of  men,  it  is  the  emi- 
nent few  who  are  named  in  history,  while  the  humble  many  run 
their  course  and  go  to  the  grave  unknown,  unhonored  and  unsung. 

But  for  the  purpose  of  manifesting  the  progress  which  the 
negro  has  made  under  very  tr^'ing  circumstances,  a  brief  review 
of  the  lives  of  some  of  the  noted  men  of  the  race,  will  be  in 
order. 

From  the  beginning  it  has  been  the  purpose  of  this  little  volume 
to  confine  its  narration  to  those  persons  of  color,  in  the  main,  who 
have  been  the  subjects  of  slaver}^  within  the  United  States,  with  a 
view  of  exhibiting  their  heroism  in  rising  above  the  rule  of  oppres- 
sion, that  was  their  birthright,  and  of  the^'ears  of  their  early  lives. 
There  have  been  many  free  men  of  color  who  were  never  held  as 
slaves  who  have  been  an  honor  to  their  race,  but  these  scarcely 
eome  within  the  line  of  this  discussion. 


64 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


CRISPUS  ATTUCKS. 

In  a  former  part  of  this  volume  it  has  been  shown  that  at  the 
time  of  the  foundation  of  the  federal  constitution  all  of  the  states 
held  slaves  except  one.  Prior  to  that  date,  in  colonial  days  and 
before  the  old  French  war,  slaves  were  held  in  all  communities 
settled  by  immigration  from  Europe.  About  the  year  1723  there 
was  born  of  a  slave  mother  in  the  colony  of  Massachusetts  the 
subject  of  this  sketch,  Crispus  Attucks.  Like  all  men  possessing 
natural  aspirations  for  liberty,  Crispus  Attucks  chafed  under  the 
rule  of  slavery  and  longed  to  be  free.  When  he  was  27  years  old 
he  managed  to  escape  from  his  master  at  Farmington,  the  date  of 
his  escape  being  September  30,  1750.  He  has  been  described  as  a 
finely  developed  man,  of  a  bright  yellow  complexion,  six  feet  two 
inches  in  height,  broad  shouldered  and  in  every  respect  an 
athlete.  He  had  learned  to  read,  for  at  that  time  the  education 
of  a  slave  was  not  entirely  forbidden .  His  master  advertised  for  his 
recovery,  offering  a  reward  of  ten  pounds  sterling  for  his  capture. 
As  it  was  pi:'esumed  he  would  try  to  go  abroad  in  some  sailing 
vessel  all  masters  of  such  vessels  and  others  were  cautioned 
"against  concealing  or  carrying  off  said  servant  on  penalt}^  of  the 
law."  But  the  caution  was  useless,  for  Crispus  Attucks  made 
good  his  escape  and  was  not  captured. 

His  biographers  do  not  tell  us  whether  he  went  to  sea  or 
fled  to  the  forests,  or  how  he  managed  to  survive,  but  it  is 
certain  that  the  soul-born  love  of  freedom  which  he  cherished  was 
not  quenched.  He  was  ready  to  fight  for  liberty,  and  if  need  be, 
to  die  for  the  cause,  not  for  himself  alone,  but  for  all  the  subjects 
of  oppression.    And  in  that  manner  he  met  his  death. 

The  Boston  massacre  took  place  March  5,  1770,  The  inhabit- 
ants of  that  city  had  been  the  victims  of  British  oppression  to  a 
degree  that  frenzied  them  with  madness.  They  had  been  taxed 
without  representation,  and  at  last  British  troops  were  sent  among 
them  to  enforce  subjection  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet.  They 
formed  clubs  to  drive  out  the  invaders.  Shouting,  "let  us  drive 
out  the  ribalds  —  they  have  no  business  here,"  the  crowd  rushed 
toward  King  street  and  made  for  the  custom-house.  At  the  sight 
of  an  armed  sentinel  the  mob  shouted,  "Kill  him!  kill  him!"  and 
made  an  attack.  Charles  Botta,  the  Italian  historian  says:  "There 
was  a  band  of  the  populace,  led  by  a  mulatto  named  Attucks, 
who  brandished  their  clubs  and  pelted  them  with  snow-balls.  The 
soldiers  received  the  advance  of  the  populace  at  the  point  of  their 
bayonets.     The  scene  was  horrible.     At  length  the  mulatto  and 


VArGHAX's   PLEA   FOR   THE   OLD  SLAVEii 


65 


twelve  of  liis  companions  i^ressmg  forward  environed  tlie  soldiers^ 
striking  tlieir  muskets  Avitli  theii*  clubs,  cried  to  the  multitude, 
•Be  not  afraid — they  dare  not  fire.  AThy  do  you  hesitate  ?  TTIiy 
do  you  not  kill  them  ?    TThy  not  crush  them  out  at  once  :  '  " 

Inspired  by  the  words  of  Attucks  the  crowd  rushed  madly  on 
and.  as  they  approached  the  soldiery,  there  was  a  discharge  of 
firearms.  Attucks.  the  brave  leader,  had  lifted  his  arm  to  strike 
down  Capt.  Preston,  the  British  officer  in  command,  but  he  fell  a 
victim  to  the  first  gun  shot.  Two  others  fell  with  him  and  five 
were  wounded.  The  cry  of  bloodshed  spread  like  wild  fire. 
Citizens  crowded  the  streets,  white  witb  rage.  The  z-hurch-bells 
rang  the  alarm,  and  in  a  little  while  the  whole  country  was  aroused 
to  battle. 

Crispus  Attucks  was  buried  from  historic  Fanueil  Hall  with 
pomp  and  honor .  He  was  no  longer  looked  upon  as  a  fugitive 
slave  on  whose  head  a  price  had  been  set.  but  as  a  i^atriot  leader 
who  had  dared  to  shed  his  bloo;l  in  defiauce  of  British  oppression. 
Ilis  porition  had  been  taken  with  firmness  and  decision,  f.jr  in 
advance  of  the  massacre  he  had  addressed  a  letter  to  the  Tory 
Governor  of  the  provice  of  Massachusetts  in  these  words: 

Sir:  You  will  hear  from  us  with  astomshment.  You  ought  to  hear 
from  us  with  horror.  You  are  chargeable  before  God  and  roan  with  our 
blood.  The  soldiers  are  but  passive  instruments,  mere  machtiies.  neither 
moral  or  voluntary  agents  in  our  destruction,  more  than  the  leaden  pellets 
with  which  we  were  wounded.  You  were  a  free  agent.  You  acted  coolly» 
deliberately,  with  all  that  premeditated  mahr^e.  Jiot  against  us  in.  particu- 
lar, but  against  the  people  in  oreneral.  which,  in  sight  of  the  law.  is  an 
ingredient  in  the  composition  of  murder.  You  will  hear  from  us  further 
hereafter.  Crispus  Attucks. 

This  letter  has  reference  to  a  former  skirmish  before  the  fatal 
day  of  massacre. 

I :  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  first  blood  shed  in  the  cause  of  the 
American  Eevolution  was  that  of  a  patriot  man  of  color  who  had 
lived  twenty  years  of  freedom  af  er  having  deliberately  broken 
the  chains  that  bound  him  to  a  liie  of  slavery.  ^here  Crispus 
Attucks  had  made  his  abode  daring  those  twenty  years  has  not 
been  made  kii  jwn  to  the  present  generation.  Although  a  price 
had  been  set  upon  his  head  i:  is  manifest  that  he  did  not  go  far 
enough  away  from  Boston  to  prevent  his  hearing  the  clanking  of 
the  chains  that  were  being  forged  to  make  Americans  of  every 
creed  and  color  the  slaves  of  British  tyranny.  At  the  first  mani- 
festation of  force  he  i^lac-ed  himself  at  the  head  of  the  people  by 
right  of  having  been  born  and  ordained  of  God  as  a  natural 


66 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


leader  of  men.  He  fell  a  martyr  in  a  holy  cause.  Let  his  name 
be  held  in  sacred  endearment. 

The  history  of  Crispus  Attacks  gives  evidence  that  slaves  are 
entitled  to  freedom,  and  they  deserve  compensation  for  the  labor 
they  performed  when  their  time  was  not  their  own. 

FREDERICK  DOUGLASS. 

Perhaps  the  best  known  man  of  color,  now  living,  and  the  man 
of  all  others  who  has  been  regarded  as  the  representative  man  of 
his  race,  is  Frederick  Douglass.  A  biographical  sketch  of  this 
remarkable  negro  reads  more  like  romance  than  fact  ;  and  yet 
every  word  that  has  been  published  respecting  him  is  fact  without 
the  half  having  been  told. 

Mr.  Douglass  does  not  know  his  exact  age,  but  he  was  probably 
born  in  the  year  1817  or  1818.  In  an  interview  with  his  old 
master,  who  once  held  him  as  a  slave,  a  few  months  prior  to  the 
death  of  the  latter,  he  was  told  that  according  to  tlie  recollection 
of  Captain  Auld,  he  was  born  in  the  month  of  February,  1818. 
He  had  always  regarded  himself  one  year  older.  The  birthplace 
of  Douglass  was  in  the  district  of  Tuckahoe  on  the  eastern  shore 
of  Mar3dand.  His  eai  ly  years  were  marked  by  extreme  poverty 
and  wretchedness.  He  was  the  slave  of  Captain  Auld,  who  was  a 
severe  taskmaster  and  selfishly  cruel.  Southern  slave  holders  were 
not  generally  cruel,  but  there  were  exceptions,  and  the  case  of 
Frederick  Douglass  constituted  an  extraordinary  exception. 

When  ten  3- ears  old  Douglass  was  sent  to  Mrs.  Sophia  Auld, 
a  relation  by  marriage  to  Captain  Auld,  to  be  reared  as  a 
house  servant  in  Baltimore.  His  situation  was  now  greatly 
improved.  The  woman  had  humane  cliaracteristics,  and  noticing 
that  her  servant  was  naturall}'^  bright  and  quick  she  began  teach- 
ing him  the  alphabet.  But  her  husband  ascertained  what  was 
going  on  and  soon  put  a  stop  to  further  instruction.  Possibl}^ 
this  circumstance  changed  the  whole  tenor  of  Frederick  Douglass', 
life.  Had  Mrs.  Auld  been  permitted  to  teach  him  to  read,  and  to 
have  given  him  that  kindly  treatment  which  her  heart  prompted, 
he  might  have  been  content  to  have  remained  in  Baltimore,  and 
he  would  have  endured  a  life  of  slavery  as  millions  of  others  have 
done.  But  the  inhibition  of  the  instruction  he  craved  only 
whetted  his  appetite  for  learning,  and  excited  a  determination  to 
be  a  free  man  at  the  earliest  opportunity.  He  carried  his  spelling 
book  in  his  jacket  and  by  sheer  effort  taught  himself.  When  he 
could  read  a  little  he  invested  his  little  earnings  in  a  copy  of  the 


FREDERICK  DOUGLASS. 


68 


valtghan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


old  Columbian  Orator,  and  after  reading  the  "Fanaticism  of 
Liberty"  and  the  "Declaration  of  Independence"  he  made  up  his 
mind  that  there  was  no  just  right  in  holding  him  in  slavery. 
He  watched  his  chance  and  ran  away.  He  had  by  this  time 
nearly  reached  his  majority  and  was  engaged  to  a  free  woman 
of  color .  He  made  his  way ,  as  best  he  could ,  to  New  York , 
whither  his  affianced  wife  followed  him.  They  were  married  and 
settled  at  New  Bedford,  Mass.  Here  he  pursued  a  life  of  the 
severest  toil,  doing  any  job  of  work  he  could  procure.  Here 
several  of  his  children  were  born.  Through  all  his  toil  he  con- 
tinued his  studies  and  developed  an  active  mind  that  will  compare 
favorably  with  the  educated  talent  of  our  first  statesmen.  He  was 
a  regular  reader  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison's  Liberator,  and 
gauged  his  career  after  the  system  of  that  gentleman's  teachings. 

His  first  political  address  was  delivered  at  Nantucket  in  1841. 
He  was  at  once  made  an  agent  of  the  American  Anti-Slavery 
Society,  and  in  that  capacity  he  began  a  crusade  for  the  freedom 
and  elevation  of  his  race.  His  reputation  began  to  extend  all 
over  the  states  and  to  foreign  countries.  The  rumor  went  abroad 
that  he  was  a  fugitive  from  slavery,  and  there  were  constant 
threats  of  his  arrest.  But  his  identity  was  not  easily  established, 
as  he  had  assumed  the  name  of  Frederick  Douglass,  and  was  not 
suspected  of  being  the  runaway  slave  of  Capt.  Auld.  The  custom 
of  slave  days  was  for  the  servant  to  bear  the  name  of  the  master. 

As  his  oratorical  career  spread  his  fame  abroad  Mr.  Douglass 
was  pressed  to  visit  England  in  the  advancement  of  his  work. 
There  he  was  lionized.  He  was  the  guest  of  John  Bright  and 
British  statesmen  delighted  to  do  him  honor.  He  subsequently 
engaged  in  journalism  and  was  the  editor  of  several  publications. 
While  publishing  Frederick  Douglass'  Paper  he  conceived  the 
idea  of  sending  his  journal  to  every  member  of  congress,  which  he 
did  for  several  j-ears . 

About  this  time  Mr.  Douglass  made  the  acquaintance  of  John 
Brown,  of  Harper's  Ferry  memory,  and  they  became  fast  friends. 
Together  they  formed  plans  for  the  liberation  of  slaves,  but  Mr. 
Douglass  did  not  approve  of  an  armed  insurrection  and  did  his 
best  to  induce  Mr.  Brown  to  abandon  that  program.  In  this,  as 
the  world  knows,  he  was  not  successful.  Had  Mr.  Douglass  been 
successful  in  changing  Mr.  Brown's  plans  the  Harper's  Ferry 
tragedy  would  not  have  occurred. 

The  association  between  Frederick  Douglass  and  Mr.  Brown 
became  known,  and  with  it  the  information  was  imparted  as  t© 


vaughan's  plea  I  or  the  old  slaves. 


69 


Mr.  Douglass'  identity .  Governor  Wise,  of  Virginia,  took  measures 
to  have  him  arrested  and  restored  to  slaver}^.  He  addressed 
a  letter  to  President  Buchanan,  asking  to  have  two  detectives 
commissioned  as  special  mail  agents  that  the}^  might  shadow  him 
and,  when  convenient,  arrest  and  take  him  south.  But  the  facts 
came  to  light,  and  acting  under  the  advice  of  friends  Mr. 
Douglass  repaired  to  Canada  and  thence  sailed  for  Europe.  He 
remained  abroad  until  he  might  safely  return  to  America  and 
resume  his  anti-slavery  work  at  home. 

Durmg  the  war  Mro  Doaglass  was  a  xDrominent  figure  in  all 
that  appertained  to  his  race.  He  urged  the  issue  of  the  emanci- 
pation proclamation  with  all  the  vigor  and  force  of  his  great  intel- 
lect ,  and  when  Mr .  Lincoln  finally  became  persuaded  that  emancipa- 
tion, as  a  war  measure,  was  a  union  necessity  he  proceeded  to  act. 
When  the  first  proclamation  of  September  1862  was  made  public, 
it  is  prob  ible  that- no  happier  man  lived  on  American  soil  than 
Frederick  Douglass.  The  work  of  a  lifetime  was  accomplished,  the 
prayers  of  a  lifetime  had  been  answered,  and  the  oppressed 
people  of  his  race  were  practically  free. 

Naturall}',  a  man  of  Mr.  Douglass'  patriotic  views  on  national 
questions,  and  his  gre?ot  desire  to  see  his  race  elevated  to  a  high 
standard  of  respectability,  caused  him  to  take  a  deep  interest  in 
the  purposes  of  the  war  during  its  continuance .  He  was  among 
the  first  to  encourage  the  enlistment  of  colored  troops,  and  to 
have  them  put  upon  a  footing  with  white  soldiers.  He  had 
become  a  man  of  large  Ys'ealth,  and  he  used  his  private  means 
freely  in  the  organization  of  black  regiments,  and  in  equipping 
the  troops  for  service  in  the  field.  Two  of  his  sons  were  among 
the  first  to  enlist  and  thousands  of  others  went  with  them  to  the 
front.  While  the  young  men  of  his  race  were  taking  part  in 
active  service,  Mr.  Douglass  interested  himself  in  securing  for  the 
negro  troops  the  right  of  exchange  and  the  general  humane  treat- 
ment extended  to  captives  taken  in  war.  In  this  work  he  was 
successful  in  a  marked  degree . 

After  the  conclusion  of  hostilities  Mr .  Douglass  was  an  active 
participant  in  the  exciting  scenes  that  took  place  in  congress  and 
other  legislative  bodies  looking  to  riveting  the  rights  established 
for  the  negro  race  upon  the  federal  constitution,  and  the  consti- 
tutions of  those  states  wherein  slavery  had  previously  been  a 
recognized  institution.  He  was  very  active  and  influential  in 
procuring  the  passage  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  amendments 
to  the  federal  constitution,  the  freedmen's  bureau  bill,  the  civil 


70 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


rights  act  and  other  legislation  necessary  for  the  peace,  comfort 
and  protection  of  his  race . 

Following  the  busy  scenes  and  events  of  the  reconstruction 
period  Mr.  Douglass  entered  the  lecture  field  and  achieved  great 
distinction  as  a  platform  orator.  In  this  theater  of  action  he 
encountered  much  of  the  prejudice  entertained  by  white  people 
against  the  black  race,  simply  because  of  their  color.  Great 
crowds  rushed  to  hear  him  discuss  the  civic  questions  of  the  day, 
but  very  few  desired  to  care  for  his  comfort  and  well-being  as  he 
filled  his  lecture  engagements.  All  were  anxious  to  hear,  but 
scarcely  any  were  willing  to  entertain.  An  incident  of  this 
character  is  worth  relating. 

Mr.  Douglass  had  been  invited  to  lecture  before  the  library 
association  at  Evansville,  Indiana.  The  question  arose,  "What 
shall  we  do  with  him?"  None  of  the  gentlemen  directly  con- 
nected with  the  association  cared  to  have  him  as  a  guest.  By 
chance  Col.  A.  T.  Whittlesey,  who  had  been  postmaster  at  Evans- 
ville during  the  administration  of  President  Johnson,  and  was 
then  the  editor  of  the  Evansville  Daily  Courier,  and  now  of  the 
Omaha  Daily  Democrat,  learned  of  a  heated  discussion  upon  the 
subject  between  gentlemen  of  political  sympathy  with  Mr.  Doug- 
lass, not  one  of  whom  were  willing  to  open  their  doors  to  the 
great  orator.  Col.  Whittlesey  at  once  addressed  a  note  to  Dr.  H. 
W.  Cloud,  of  the  lecture  committee,  stating  that  he  would  be 
glad  to  have  Mr.  Douglass  become  his  guest,  and  that  all  colored 
persons,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  who  desired  to  pay  their  respects  to 
Mr.  Douglass  during  his  sojourn  would  be  just  as  welcome  at  his 
I)arlors  as  white  persons  who  might  see  fit  to  call. 

Mr.  Whittlesey  and  his  wife  had  frequently  entertained  such 
eminent  statesmen  as  Thomas  A.  Hendricks,  Senator  Voorhees 
and  other  persons  of  recognized  political  reputation.  It  was 
remarked  that  as  their  guest  Mr.  Douglass  would  be  extended 
all  the  courtesy  and  attention  due  to  his  great  ability,  but  for 
political  reasons  party  leaders  refused  to  permit  the  proposed 
arrangement  to  be  carried  out.  Mr.  Douglass  was  not  allowed  to 
be  Col.  Whittlesey's  guest,  nor  the  guest  of  any  other  respectable 
white  gentleman  in  Evansville.  Neither  was  he  provided  with 
quarters  in  any  of  the  public  hotels  in  the  city .  He  was  accommo- 
dated at  a  negro  boarding  house  kept  by  a  Widow  Carter,  a  very 
highly  respected  colored  lady,  and  no  white  persons  called  to  pny 
their  respects  other  than  the  lecture  committee  having  him 
immediately  under  their  charge.    It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say 


VAUGHAX  S  PLEA  FOR  THE  OLD  SLAVES. 


71 


that  this  little  episode  created  an  intense  local  excitement  for  a 
time,  and  it  serves  to  show  the  deep  seated  prejudice  entertained 
against  the  colored  race,  even  at  the  North,  by  persons  claiming  to 
be  the  especial  friends  and  champions  of  the  blacks.  But  this 
prejudice  is  fast  disappearing,  and  a  feeling  of  brotherly  kindness 
and  regard  is  gradually  extending. 

In  the  civil  service  since  the  war  Mr.  Douglass  has  been  a 
very  conspicuous  figure.  He  was  a  presidential  elector  in  the 
state  of  New  York  in  1872,  was  made  Marshal  of  the  District  of 
Columbia  in  1877  and  Register  of  Deeds  of  the  District  in  1881. 
He  continued  to  hold,  that  office  about  a  3  ear  and  a  half  under  the 
administration  of  President  Cleveland.  He  is  now  American 
Minister  at  San  Domingo.  He  is  in  all  respects  a  great  man, 
having  few  equals  in  any  walk  of  life.  He  is  purely  a  self-made 
man,  and  he  has  raised  himself  to  the  top-most  round  of  the 
ladder  of  fame.  He  is  a  credit  to  the  negro  race  and  an  honor  to 
any  people. 

SAMUEL  R.  LOWERY. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  person  of  a  different  cast  in  life 
from  most  of  the  others  who  have  made  a  record  for  distinguishment 
in  the  annals  of  the  black  race.  AVhile  descended  from  slave 
stock,  on  the  one  side,  he  was  not  himself  a  slave,  his  mother 
having  been  a  free  woman  from  the  time  of  his  birth.  But  his 
father  was  a  slave,  and  never  breathed  the  air  of  personal  freedom 
until  the  edict  of  emancipation  was  promulgated.  He  was  then 
at  liberty  to  meet  his  distinguished  son  on  the  plane  of  libert}^, 
which  is  the  natural  right  of  all  men  without  regard  to  color. 

Samuel  R.  Lowery  was  born  December  9,  1830,  from  the 
union  of  a  slave  father  and  a  mother  who  was  a  full-blooded 
Cherokee  Indian.  The  father  is  living,  or  was  two  3^ears  ago,  at 
Nashville,  Tenn.,  and  in  all  that  goodly  city  there  is  no  man 
who  has  a  juster  pride  in  his  offspring  than  Father  Lowery  enter- 
tains for  the  progress  made  by  his  distinguished  son.  Mr. 
Lowery  lost  his  mother  when  he  was  about  eight  ^^ears  old.  At 
the  age  of  sixteen  ^^ears  Mr.  Lowery  took  upon  himself  the 
business  of  school  teaching,  and  for  one  so  j^oung  met  with 
tolerable  success,  and  continued  to  teach  until  he  was  twenty  years 
old.  During  his  course  as  a  teacher  he  fell  in  with  Rev.  Talbot 
Fanning,  who  aided  the  j^oung  man  in  his  aspirations  and  was 
instrumental  in  securing  for  him  a  good  education.  He  entered 
the   ministry  and    for    about   eight   years  was  pastor  of  the 


SAMUEL  K.  LOWERY. 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


73 


Christian  church  at  Cincinnati,  Ohio.  AVhile  following  the  life 
of  a  Christian  minister  in  the  Queen  City  he  married  a  colored 
lady  of  culture,  and  soon  afterward  took  up  his  residence  in 
Canada.  He  returned  to  the  United  States  in  1863,  after  the 
appearance  of  President  Lincoln's  second  proclamation,  and  pro- 
ceeding to  Nashville,  near  the  scenes  of  his  birthplace,  he  began 
preaching  the  doctrine  of  salvation  as  taught  in  the  Christian 
churches,  but  he  coupled  with  it  the  freedom  of  the  southern 
slaves  as  an  incident  of  salvation.  He  became  chaplain  of  Col. 
Crawford's  regiment  of  negro  soldiers,  the  same  being  the 
Fortieth  regiment  of  the  United  States  infantry  regulars.  He 
was  afterward  transferred  to  the  Ninth  United  States  heavy 
artillerj^,  with  which  he  remained  in  the  capacity  of  chaplain 
until  the  dawn  of  peace. 

Mr.  Lowery  opened  a  school  in  Rutherford  county,  Tennessee, 
after  the  war,  but  the  prevalence  of  political  excitement  prevented 
his  success  in  that  work.  He  then  took  a  law  course  and  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  at  Nashville.  In  1875  he  took  up  ^^his 
residence  at  Hunts ville,  Alabama,  and  pursued  his  legal  calling 
with  marked  success.  One  of  his  cases  having  been  carried  to  the 
supreme  court  of  the  United  States  he  followed  it  to  AYashington 
for  the  purpose  of  making  an  argument,  and  he  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  of  the  highest  tribunal  of  the  land  upon  motion  of  Mrs. 
Belva  A.  Lockwood,  the  renowned  female  attorney.  While  in 
Washington  his  two  daughters,  aged  respectively  15  and  10  years, 
visited  an  exhibition  of  silkworms  and  became  interested  in  the 
silk  culture.  They  persuaded  their  father  to  purchase  some  silk- 
worm eggs,  which  he  did,  and  with  the  aid  of  the  southern 
mulberry  tree  as  a  feeder  of  the  worms  Mr.  Lowery  began  the 
silk  culture  at  Huntsville,  which  he  has  promoted  to  a  valuable 
industry.  After  beginning  this  work  Mr.  Lowery  visited  all  the 
silk  industries  in  America  and  mastered  all  the  points  to  which 
his  attention  was  directed. 

Mr.  Lowery  has  abandoned  the  practice  of  the  law  and  has 
given  his  whole  time  to  the  culture  of  silk.  At  the  New  Orleans 
industrial  exposition  he  was  awarded  the  first  prize  for  fine  silk 
goods,  over  an  old  French  establishment  to  which  a  premium  of 
$1,000  had  been  paid  as  an  inducement  to  make  an  exhibit.  The 
silk  factory  at  Huntsville  is  in  a  very  prosperous  condition,  and 
the  name  of  Samuel  R.  Lowery,  preacher,  lawyer  and  manufac- 
turer, is  among  those  standing  high  in  the  progress  of  the 
colored  people.    His  father  was  a  slave  ! 


74 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


HON.   ROBERT  SMALLS. 

Few  of  the  ex-slaves  deserve  more  favorable  mention  or  higher 
honor  than  the  ex-member  of  Congress  from  the  Beaufort  district 
of  South  Carolina.  Mr.  Smalls  was  born  at  Beaufort,  in  the 
district  which  he  subsequently  represented  in  the  house  of  repre- 
sentatives at  Washington,  April  5,  1839.  As  a  slave  his 
advantages  of  education  were  limited,  but  by  hook  or  crook  he 
managed  to  secure  the  smattering  of  an  English  education.  In 
1851  he  went  to  Charleston  and  was  emploj^ed  in  the  business 
of  ship  rigging.  In  this  business  he  learned  the  business  of  equip- 
ping a  vessel  and  incidentally  the  duties  of  a  sailor.  In  that 
capacity  he  became  connected  with  the  Planter,  a  transport  doing 
business  in  Charleston  harbor.  He  was  employed  on  board  that 
vessel  when  Fort  Sumter  was  fired  upon  in  1861.  The  Planter 
was  taken  in  possession  by  the  Confederate  authorities  and  was 
used  as  a  dispatch  boat  until  she  was  captured  and  turned  over  to 
the  blockading  fleet  of  the  United  States  navy,  May  13,  1862. 

The  capture  of  the  vessel  was  accomplished  by  Robert  Smalls. 
The  day  before,  the  vessel  had  been  engaged  in  removing  guns 
from  Coles  Island  to  James  Island.  After  the  work  was  done  the 
boat  returned  to  Charleston.  The  officers  went  ashore,  leaving  a 
crew  of  eight  colored  men  on  board  in  charge  of  Mr.  Smalls,  who 
was  a  wheelman  and  acting  pilot.  The  crew  was  called  together, 
and  Robert  Smalls  laid  before  the  men  on  deck  his  plan  for  turn- 
ing over  the  vessel  to  the  United  States  squadron,  to  which  all 
assented ,  although  two  of  the  men  became  frightened  and  con- 
cluded to  remain  behind.  The  scheme  was  hazardous,  as  the  boat 
was  obliged  to  pass  under  the  guns  of  the  fort  and  the  shore 
batteries .  Detection  was  certain  death .  At  2  o'clock  in  the  morning 
steam  was  raised  and  the  Planter,  with  a  valuable  cargo  of  guns 
and  ammunition,  designed  for  the  equipment  of  Fort  Ripley,  a 
new  fortification  erected  in  the  harbor,  moved  up  to  the  North 
Atlantic  wharf,  where  Smalls'  wife  and  two  children,  three  men 
and  four  other  women,  were  taken  on  board.  All  were  colored 
people.  The  Planter  passed  Fort  Johnson,  first  sounding  her 
whistle  in  salute,  and  receiving  the  customary  salute  in  return, 
and  proceeded  down  the  bay.  Passing  Fort  Sumter  Smalls  leaned 
out  of  the  pilot  house  with  the  broad  sombrero  of  Relay,  the 
master  of  the  vessel,  drawn  over  his  face,  and  was  mistaken  for 
that  officer. 

The  required  signal  was  given  and  responded  to.  After  pass- 
ing the  Fort  the  Planter  was  headed  for  Morris  Island,  then 


HON.  EOBEET  SilALLS. 


76 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


occupied  by  Hatch's  light  artillery.  When  it  became  evident  that 
the  Planter  was  heading  for  the  Federal  fleet  the  Hatch  battery  at 
Morris'  Island  was  signalled  to  stop  her;  but  it  was  too  late.  The 
Planter  displayed  a  white  flag,  but  in  the  darkness  it  was  not  dis- 
tinguished. Qlie  was  mistaken  for  a  Confederate  ram,  and  the 
naval  vessels  drew  out  of  her  way .  The  ship  Onward ,  not  being  a 
steamer,  prepared  for  a  broadside,  when  the  lookout  chanced  to 
observe  the  flag  of  truce.  When  within  hailing  distance  her  char- 
acter was  explained  and  the  Planter  was  speedily  surrendered  to 
Captain  Nichols,  of  the  United  States  navy.  Robert  Smalls  was 
afterwards  transferred  to  the  gun-boat  Crusader,  and  on  board  of 
that  vessel  and  the  captured  Planter  he  continued  to  do  duty  dur- 
ing the  war.  He  was  honored  with  a  captain's  rank  in  the  United 
States  navy,  but  he  was  never  commissioned  as  such  an  officer. 

After  the  war  a  bill  was  introduced  in  Congress  to  place  the 
name  of  Robert  Smalls  upon  the  retired  list  of  the  United  States 
navy,  and  a  voluminous  report  was  submitted  showing  the  value  of 
the  property  which  he  captured,  and  the  meritorious  service  which 
he  rendered  to  the  Government  of  the  United  States.  Yet,  strange 
to  say,  the  bill  did  not  pass  for  the  frivolous  reason  assigned  that 
there  was  no  precedent  for  placing  a  civilian  upon  the  retired  list  of 
the  navy.  Had  Mr.  Smalls  been  a  distinguished  politician  of  the 
party  in  power  he  would,  no  doubt,  have  been  voted  a  high  reward 
for  services  rendered  the  Union  cause. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  Captain  Smalls,  as  he  was  called,  drop- 
ped, naturally,  into  civil  life.  He  was  elected  a  member  of  the 
convention  which  framed  the  constitution  of  South  Carolina  under 
the  reconstruction  acts,  and  took  an  active  part  in  the  proceedings. 
In  1868  he  was  made  a  member  of  the  state  legislature,  and  was  the 
author  of  the  state  civil  rights  bill.  He  then  served  a  part  of  a 
term  in  the  state  senate  as  the  successor  of  Judge  Wright,  and  after- 
wards was  elected  for  a  full  term.  He  occupied  a  high  rank  in  the 
South  Carolina  militia,  holding  the  rank  of  lieutenant-colonel  of 
the  third  regiment,  and  was  made  a  brigadier-general  in  1873. 

General  Smalls  was  a  delegate  to  three  national  conventions  of 
the  republican  party  —  at  Philadelphia,  in  1872,  when  Grant  and 
Wilson  received  the  party  nomination;  at  Cincinnati,  in  1876, 
when  Hayes  and  Wheeler  were  nominated,  and  again  at  Chicago, 
in  1884,  when  Blaine  and  Logan  were  placed  in  the  field.  He  has 
served  three  successive  terms  in  Congress,  having  been  elected  the 
first  time  in  1880,  to  the  Forty-seventh  Congress;  he  was  re-elected 
in  1882  to  the  Forty-eighth  Congress,  and  again  in  1884  to  the 


YAUGHAX'S   PLEA  FOR  THE  OLD  SLAVES. 


77 


Fortj'-ninth  Congress.  He  is  a  gentleman  of  pleasant  demeanor, 
affable  and  approachable,  and  he  is  in  ever}^  respect  an  honor  to  his 
race . 

PROF.   JOSEPH  E.  JOXES. 

Among  the  remarkable  men,  of  the  African  race  who 
have  sprung  from  the  lap  of  the  institution  of  slaver}^,  there  are 
some  who  have  distinguished  themselves  in  the  field  of  literature 
and  learning  in  a  high  degree,  and  have  made  a  mark  in  educa- 
tional progress  quite  as  eminent  as  those  who  have  taken  a  high 
rank  in  political  life.  In  this  catalogue  very  honorable  mention 
deserves  to  be  made  of  Prof.  J.  E.  Jones,  of  the  theological  semi- 
nar}^ at  Iviclimond,  Virginia. 

Prof.  Jones  was  born  in  slaver}'  in  the  citv  of  Lynchburg, 
October  15,  1850.  He  is  still  a  comparatively  young  man.  He 
began  life  at  the  age  of  six  3'ears,  as  stripper  in  a  tobacco  factor}-, 
greatl}'  to  the  disgust  of  his  mother,  who  had  a  mother's  heart  and 
ambition  for  her  offspring.  The  laws  of  Virginia  forbade  the 
education  of  slaves,  and  there  opened  up  for  the  mother  only  a  life 
of  toil  for  her  boy.  Yet  she  conceived  the  idea  that  some  time  in 
the  future  the  negroes  would  become  free,  and  that  her  son  would 
be  somebody.  She  frequently  expressed  such  sentiments  to  her 
fellow  slaves,  and  on  one  occasion  she  stated  her  opinion  to  her 
master.  The  woman  was  esteemed  to  be  stark  mad.  There  was, 
however,  method  in  her  madness,  and  having  saved  some  money 
of  her  own,  she  procured  the  services  of  a  negro  in  the  same 
family  to  which  she  belonged,  but  who  had  a  limited  education,  to 
give  her  son  elementary  lessons.  Two  or  three  evenings  a  week 
were  devoted  to  this  purpose .  It  was  near  the  end  of  the  war ,  in 
186-4,  and  the  condition  of  the  confederate  cause  was  becoming 
desperate.  The  teacher  became  frightened  and  concluded  that  it 
would  be  prudent  for  him  to  suspend  his  educational  functions. 
After  much  persuasion  he  concluded  to  continue  the  lessons  every 
Sunday  morning  from  10  to  12  o'clock.  About  this  time  the 
teacher's  owner  ascertained  that  his  slave  could  read  and  write, 
and  the  master  accordingly  sold  a  slave  that  was  such  unsafe 
property  as  to  be  possessed  of  a  little  education.  This  was  a  sad 
blow  to  the  aspirations  of  young  Joe  Jones. 

But  the  fond  mother  could  not  give  over  her  project  of 
securing  an  education  for  her  son.  A  sick  confederate  soldier 
happened  to  come  in  her  locality  and  she  offered  him  lodging  and 
food  in  case  he  would  give  lessons  to  the  young  lad.  Thus  matters 
continued  for  several  weeks  until  the  surrender  of  General  Lee  at 


PROF.  JOSEPH  E.  JONES. 


VAUGHAN  S  PLEA  FOR  THE  OLD  SLAVES, 


79 


Appomattox.  Then  followed  the  universal  recognition  of  the 
success  of  emancipation,  and  a  brighter  day  dawned  for  the 
aspiring  youth.  He  at  once  became  a  student  in  a  private 
school  opened  at  Lynchburg,  where  he  continued  two  years. 

In  October,  1868,  young  Jones  entered  the  Richmond  Insti- 
tute, now  the  Richmond  Seminary,  in  which  he  figures  as  a 
Professor.  Here  he  received  instruction  three  years  and  "then 
entered  the  Madison  University  at  Hamilton,  Is.  Y.,  where  he 
graduated  in  1876,  having  taken  a  complete  preparatory  and 
college  course.  The  same  year  the  American  Baptist  Home  Mis- 
sion Society,  of  New  York,  appointed  him  as  instructor  in  the 
Richmond  Institute,  and  made  him  professor  of  language  and 
philosopli}^.  The  following  year  he  was  ordained  as  a  Baptist 
Minister,  and  his  Alma  Mater  conferred  upon  him  the  degree  of 
Master  of  Arts.  He  is  now  -professor  of  Ilomeletics  and  the 
Greek  language  in  the  Richmond  Theological  Seminary. 

The  career  of  this  able  and  accomplished  student  furnishes 
abundant  evidence  that  the  despised  negro  slave  of  other  dsijs  may 
become  eminent  in  letters  and  renowned  in  the  service  of  the 
Divine  Master. 

PROF.  JOHN  H.  BURRUS, 

The  surrender  of  1865  found  three  slave  hoys  named  Burrus 
at  Marshall,  Texas,  with  the  remnant  of  Bragg's  armj^.  With 
their  mother  they  were  sent  to  Shreveport,  La.,  thence  to  New 
Orleans  and  finally  to  Memphis,  Tenn.  Here  the  subject  of  this 
sketch,  John  H.  Burrus,  found  emplo^nnent  as  a  steamboat  cook. 
About  1866  he  went  to  Nashville  and  became  a  hotel  waiter.  He 
saved  his  money  and  took  to  study  of  evenings  in  order  to 
acquire  an  education,  receiving  instruction  from  two  lady  boarders 
of  the  hotel.  By  1867  he  had  saved  $300,  and  then  determined 
to  take  a  course  at  the  Fisk  Universit}^.  During  the  vacations  he 
taught  school.  Thus  he  continued  until  1874,  During  the  sum- 
mer of  that  year  he  traveled  with  a  religious  panorama.  In  1876 
he  was  elected  a  delegate  to  the  Republican  National  Convention  at 
Cincinnati  and  there  voted  for  the  nomination  of  Rutherford 
B.  Hayes  for  president. 

After  the  convention  Mr.  Burrus  made  an  extensive  tour 
throughout  the  North  and  East.  On  his  return  home  he  was 
chosen  principal  of  the  Yazoo  city  school  at  Yazoo,  Miss.  He 
subsequently  taught  two  years  in  his  Alma  Mater  college,  the  Fisk 
University,  and  received  the  degree  of  A.  M.  In  1879  he  began 
reading  law  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1881.    In  1883  he 


FREED,  UNEDUCATED,  NO  MONEY  AND  NO  FRIENDS-RAGS  AND  POVERTY 

J3«.B1X:4X^,  HIS  PORTION. 


VAUGHAN*S  PLEA  FOR  THU  OLD  SLAVES. 


81 


was  selected  for  the  presidency  of  the  Alcorn  Agricultural  and 
Mechanical  College  at  Rodney,  Miss.,  which  has  grown  to  be  one 
of  the  most  important  institutions  of  learning  in  the  South  under 
his  administration.  He  is  a  gentleman  of  the  finest  culture, 
devoted  to  his  profession,  and  highly  esteemed  throughout 
Mississippi  by  all  classes  of  people. 

Besides  representing  his  people  at  the  Cincinnati  Convention 
in  1876  Prof.  Burrus  has  been  a  good  deal  of  a  politician  and  has 
manifested  an  aptitude  for  public  life.  He  was  secretary  of  the 
Tennessee  republican  convention  in  1878  and  was  secretary  and 
treasurer  of  the  State  Executive  Committee  for  two  years.  He 
was  elected  a  school  director  at  Nashville  in  1878  and  was  re-elected 
in  1881,  beating  the  combined  vote  of  two  competitors,  one  white 
man  and  one  negro,  although  the  majority  of  the  people  of  the 
district  were  white.  The  other  two  directors  were  white  men,  yet 
Mr.  Burrus  was  made  chairman  of  the  board  and  charged  with 
the  duty  of  visiting  all  the  schools  and  seeing  that  the  course  of 
instruction  was  rigidly  followed. 

Since  being  placed  at  the  head  of  the  Alcorn  University  Prof. 
Burrus  has  abjured  political  life  and  proposes  to  devote  the 
balance  of  his  days  strictly  to  educational  interests.  He  has  done 
much  towards  the  elevation  of  his  race.  He  does  not  believe  in 
any  man  complaining  that  his  color  has  kept  him  down  in  lif^. 
He  believes  that  brains  and  character  will  always  win.  He  has 
scarcely  yet  reached  the  prime  of  life,  and  there  is  a  prospect  of 
his  accomplishing  a  glorious  work  in  the  future. 

WILEY  JONES. 

Among  the  successful  ex-slaves  the  name  of  Wiley  Jones,  of 
Arkansas,  shines  with  resplendent  luster.  All  success  is  the  result 
of  innate  qualities  w^iich  mark  and  make  a  man.  In  a  pecuniary 
sense  Mr.  Jones  has  met  with  unbounded  success,  and  he  certainly 
deserves  the  good  fortune  which  has  attended  his  labors  since  he 
was  released  from  bondage. 

Wiley  Jones  is  a  native  of  Georgia,  having  been  born  in 
Madison  county,  July  14,  1848.  His  parents  are  dead.  When 
only  five  years  old  he  was  taken  to  Arkansas  by  his  master,  whose 
name  was  Fitz  Yell.  As  soon  as  he  was  old  enough  he  was  made 
a  house-boy,  and  he  also  drove  the  family  carriage.  He  continued 
in  these  lines  of  emplo3^ment  for  two  years  or  more.  His  master 
was  an  original  union  man  and  enlisted  in  the  Federal  army  at  the 
first  opportunit}^.     His  slave,  Wiley  Jones,  followed  him,  and  he 


THE  N^EGEO. 

The  American  white 
people  have  grown 
rich  from  the  stolen 
labor  of  the  negro,  who 
is  the  friend  to  the 
white  race,  ever  ready 
to  defend  their  wives, 
children  and  property. 
The  negro  is  a  pro- 
gressive, honorable 
citizen. 

.  The  Indian  is  the 
hater  of  the  white  race. 
He  has  cost  the  gov- 
ernment millions  of 
dollars,  and  has  been 

a  murderer  of  the  race  for  hundreds  of  years.  Still,  the  Indian  is 
provided  for  with  food,  clothes,  money,  guns,  etc.  He  can  ride 
free,  north,  east,  west  and  south  on  all  railroads,  while  thousands 
of  honest,  faithful  negroes  are  starving  for  the  necessities  of  life 
almost  at  our  very  doors.  Let  the  honest  tax-payer  and  patriotic 
American  aid  in  righting  this  great  national  wrong. 


THE  IKDIAI^. 


VAUGHAX'S  PLEA  FOR  THE  OLD  SLATES. 


S3 


continued  in  camp  until  peace  was  proclaimed.  He  then  went  to 
AVaco,  Texas,  and  drove  from  Brazos  river  to  San  Antonio,  haul- 
ing cotton  to  the  frontier.  He  next  returned  to  Arkansas  and 
worked  on  a  plantation  for  monthh'  wages.  In  1881  he  went  into 
the  tobacco  and  cigar  trade,  in  which  business  he  rapidh"  accumu- 
lated a  fortune.  He  is  naturally  a  shrewd  trader,  and  to  his 
natural  quickness  of  perception  he  is  indebted  for  his  business  suc- 
cess, for  he  never  had  the  advantage  of  a  system  of  schooling, 
and  hence  his  education  is  very  limited,  being  such  as  he  has 
picked  up  in  life,  as  he  came  in  contact  with  men  and  events. 
The  school  of  adversity  and  experience  is  often  the  best  teacher 
of  men,  especiall}'  of  the  class  of  persons  who  never  yield  to 
discouragement  in  life. 

Mr.  Jones  is  now  a  resident  of  Pine  Bluff,  one  of  the  rapidly 
developing  cities  of  the  state  of  Arkansas.  He  has  extended  his 
business  b}^  securing  the  street  car  charter  for  that  thriving  x:)lace, 
and  he  has  placed  his  car  lines  under  thorough  equipment.  He  is 
also  treasurer  of  the  Industrial  Fair  Association.  He  is  the  sole 
owner  of  the  grounds  whereon  the  fair  has  been  held,  and  of  the 
race  track  and  park,  which  covers  fifty-five  acres  of  ground  h'ing 
one  mile  distant  from  the  main  street  of  the  cit}^.  The  street  car 
stables  are  also  located  on  this  tract. 

In  his  mercantile  business  Mr.  Jones  carries  a  stock  of  goods 
valued  at  815,000,  and  he  estimates  his  total  possessions  at 
$125,000,  which  is  augmenting  at  a  rapid  rate.  In  all  probability 
the  clay  is  near  at  hand  when  he  will  be  accounted  a  millionaire. 
He  is  also  a  great  fancier  of  blooded  stock,  and  owns  a  herd  of 
Durham  and  llolstein  cattle.  He  is  likewise  engaged  in  breeding 
fine  trotting  stock,  and  one  of  his  stallions,  "  Executor,"  has 
a  record  of  2:21.  On  his  farm  he  has  about  a  dozen  choice  bred 
mares,  and  he  keeps  a  professional  driver  to  handle  them,  which 
insures  the  best  of  care  and  a  fine  development  of  speed. 

Taken  altogether,  AVilev  Jones  ma}"  be  regarded  as  one  of  the 
most  successful  business  men  of  the  countrj^.  It  is  onh'  about  a 
quarter  of  a  centurj'  since  he  was  emancipated  from  the  bondage 
of  slaverj",  and  his  advancement  since  that  time  has  been  prodig- 
ious. He  is  regarded  as  the  soul  of  honor  by  his  white  neighbors, 
who  esteem  him  as  a  gentleman  of  the  first-class.  He  is  liberal, 
charitable  and  humane,  as  well  as  enterprising  and  successful  in 
business  affairs. 


84 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


JOHN  WESLEY  TERRY. 

This  gentleman  is  one  of  the  natural  mechanics  of  the  land, 
who  has  raised  himself  from  an  humble  origin  to  an  honored 
position  in  the  street  railway  service  of  a  great  city.  He  was 
born  in  Murray  county,  Tennessee,  in  the  year  1846,  and  was  the 
slave  of  one  William  Pickard  until  released  from  bondage  by  the 
circumstances  of  the  rebellion.  His  earliest  recollections  are  of  a 
very  crude  nature.  His  mother  was  a  field  hand  and  was  obliged 
to  work  on  the  farm  the  live-long  day.  Having  no  other 
resource,  the  subject  of  this  sketch  and  an  older  brother,  when  but 
prattling  infants,  were  placed  in  a  pen  every  morning,  with  a 
sufficiency  of  food  and  water  to  answer  their  daily  necessities,  and 
left  to  their  own  resources  until  the  tired  mother  returned  from 
her  daily  toil  to  her  cabin  and  her  infant  children.  Truly  this 
was  a  hard  beginning  of  an  humble  life  to  produce  the  grand 
results  which  have  followed  in  the  years  of  manhood. 

When  the  union  armies  entered  Columbia,  Tennessee,  in  the 
summer  of  1863,  the  mother  of  Mr.  Terry  took  her  children  and 
started  for  the  Federal  lines.  She  was  received  and  cared  for,  and 
for  a  season  was  offered  protection.  The  elder  son,  Henry,  was 
old  enough  to  bear  arms,  and  enlisted  in  the  union  service.  In 
time  a  change  of  commanders  occurred  at  Columbia,  and  one  Col. 
Myers  assumed  control  of  the  place.  He  made  it  a  rule  to  return 
all  slaves  to  their  masters  when  claimed.  Accordingly  Mrs.  Terry 
and  her  younger  son  were  sent  back  to  Murray  county.  Arrived 
there  the  young  man  declared  his  emancipation  to  his  former 
master,  and  threatened  to  report  him  to  the  union  commander  at 
the  adjacent  town  for  harboring  and  feeding  rebel  soldiers, 
that  county  having  been  occupied  by  union  troops  during  their 
absence  at  Columbia.  His  old  master  begged  him  not  to  make 
such  a,  report,  promised  to  recognize  his  freedom  and  pay  him 
wages  for  future  service.  Accordingly  young  Terry  worked  for 
two  years  as  a  farm  hand  for  the  man  who  had  formerly  been  his 
lawful  master. 

In  1866  young  Wesley  went  to  Nashville  to  look  for  his 
mother,  who  had  made  a  second  attempt  at  escape  from  bondage. 
Having  found  her,  he  began  the  business  of  steamboating,  while 
his  mother  kept  house  for  him.  In  1875  he  went  to  Chicago  and 
entered  the  employ  of  the  West  Division  Street  Car  Company 
and  worked  for  the  corporation  two  years.  He  then  went  to 
Washington,  D.  C,  and  entered  the  Way  land  Seminary,  where  he 
remained  four  years.    He  completed  the  normal  course  and  then 


VAUGHAX'S  PLEA  FOR  THE  OLD  SLAVES. 


85 


took  a  theological  course,  with  a  view  of  entering  the  ministr}-  of 
the  Baptist  church,  of  which  he  was  a  member.  But  having  con- 
tracted some  debts  during  his  collegiate  course,  he  concluded  to 
resume  work  in  the  car  shops,  where  he  has  continued  to  the 
present  time.  In  the  course  of  a  year  he  was  made  foreman,  and 
has  a  large  force  of  mechanics  under  his  direction,  he  being  the 
onl}^  man  of  color  in  the  company's  emplo^^ment.  He  is  highly 
respected  b}^  the  officers  of  the  company,  and  by  the  men  who 
work  under  him.  His  skill  as  a  machinist  is  of  the  highest  order. 
He  is  a  member  of  the  Knights  of  Labor  and  a  director  of  the 
Central  Park  Building  and  Loan  association. 

From  a  plantation  hand  in  Tennessee  this  3"0ung  man  has 
risen  to  affluence  and  respectability.  The  progress  of  the  ex-slave 
appears  to  be  onward  and  u[>ward. 

p.  B.  S.  PIXCHBACK. 

Few  men  in  the  South  have  attracted  so  large  a  share  of  public 
attention  since  the  days  of  emancipation  as  the  Hon.  Pinckney 
T^oTitoji.  Stewart  "P^nchbaek .  of  New  Orleans.  He  was  born  in 
Homies  C'ouniy,  JN'Iiss.,  i>lay  lO,  iSoT.  He  was  the  son  of  Major 
William  Pinchback  and  a  slave  mother  of  mixed  blood,  Eliza 
Stewart,  who  claimed  to  have  both  Kegro  and  Indian  blood  in  her 
veins.  Major  Pinchback  manumitted  the  girl  Eliza  Stewart,  who 
bore  him  ten  children,  so  it  can  scarcel}^  be  said  that  Gov.  Pinch- 
back ever  was  a  slave,  though  the  son  of  a  slave  mother.  He  is 
the  sole  survivor  of  the  large  famil}'.  The  mother  lived  to  a 
ripe  old  age,  dying  in  1884. 

In  1846  3^oung  Pinchback  with  an  elder  brother  was  sent  to 
Cincinnati  to  Gilmore's  High  School  where  they  remained  two 
3-ears.  On  their  return  home  they  found  Major  Pinchback  on  his 
dying  bed.  The  mother  with  five  children  hurried  back  to 
Cincinnati  after  the  funeral  in  order  to  prevent  the  enslavement 
of  the  children  by  the  white  heirs  of  Major  Pinchback 's  estate. 
While  there  the  oldest  son  lost  his  mind .  This  calamity' left  the 
care  of  the  family  upon  the  subject  of  this  sketch.  He  was  then 
only  twelve  years  old.  He  obtained  work  as  a  cabin  boy  on  a 
canal  boat  at  eight  dollars  a  month,  on  the  Miami  canal,  between 
Cincinnati  and  Toledo.  He  followed  the  canal  for  several  3'ears, 
on  the  Miami  canal  and  on  the  Wabash  and  Erie  canal  in  Indiana, 
for  some  time  making  his  home  at  Terre  Haute.  From  1854  to 
1861  he  took  to  the  business  of  steamboating  on  the  Missouri,  the 
Mississippi,  the  Ped  and  the  Yazoo  rivers,  rising  to  the  dignity  of 


p.  B.  S.  riNCHBACK. 


VAUGHAX'S   PLEA  FOR  THE   OLD  SLAVES. 


87 


a  steward,  wliich  was  the  liigliest  position  a  colored  man  could 
command  in  those  days. 

The  career  of  Mr.  Pinchback  as  a  steamboat  steward  was 
brought  to  a  termination  b}'  the  outbreak  of  the  civil  war  in  1861. 
The  day  he  was  25  years  old,  Ma}^  10,  1862,  he  abandoned  the 
steaniljoat  Alonzo  Cliilds  at  Yazoo  City,  Miss.,  ran  the  confederate 
Ijlockade  and  arrived  in  ^S'ew  Orleans.  He  had  scarcely  arrived 
there  before  he  had  a  difficulty  with  his  brother-in-law.  who  was 
wounded  in  the  alfra^'.  He  was  arrested  on  civil  process  and 
gave  bail.  Before  his  case  came  on  for  trial  he  w^as  again  arrested 
by  the  military,  tried  by  court  martial  and  committed  to  a  term  of 
two  years  in  the  workhouse  on  a  charge  of  assault  with  intent  to 
murder.  He  was  committed  to  the  workhouse  ]Mav  25.  1862,  but 
was  released  August  18  of  the  same  3'ear  in  order  that  he  might 
enlist  in  the  First  Louisiana  Volunteer  Infantr}'.  cnlir^^tment 
being  the  condition  of  his  release. 

vSoon  after  entering  the  military  service  Gen.  B.  F.  Butler, 
then  in  command  at  New  Orleans,  issued  his  order  calling  upon 
the  free  men  of  color  in  the  Crescent  City  to  take  up  arms  in 
defenrjc  of  the  union.  Mr.  Pinchback  vras  made  a  recruiting 
sergeant  and  he  opened  an  ofiice  for  the  enlistment  of  colored 
soldiers.  On  the  12th  of  October  the  Second  Pegiment  of  the 
Louisiana  Native  Guards  was  mustered  into  service  with  Captain 
P.  B.  S.  Pinchback  in  command  of  Company  A.  His  career  in 
the  army  was  brief  but  stormy.  He  strove  to  maintain  his  own 
dignity  and  the  rights  of  the  troops  under  his  command.  The 
Federal  soldiers  vrere  as  hostile  to  the  black  troops  as  the  most 
belligerent  rebels.  Capt .Pinchback  was  in  hot  w^ater  all  the  time. 
He  was  in  constant  troulile  with  the  street  car' officials,  who 
ejected  him  time  and  again.  He  also  had  a  difficulty  with  the 
colonel  of  his  regiment,  whom  he  accused  of  mistreating  his  men. 
His  troubles  came  so  thick  and  fast  that  September  3,  1863,  he 
tendered  his  resignation  and  it  was  accepted. 

But  Capt.  Pinchback  could  not  be  idle.  He  soon  sought  an 
interview^  wdth  Gen.  N.  P.  Banks,  who  succeeded  Gen.  Butler. 
The  General  was  favorably  impressed  and  issued  an  order  permit- 
ting Capt.  Pinchback  to  recruit  a  company  of  colored  cavalry. 
The  company  was  raised  but  a  commission  was  refused  to  Pinch- 
back because  of  hi-  color.  This  act  of  injustice  closed  his  mili- 
tary career.  He  did  not  again  seek  to  serve  his  country  as  a 
soldier . 


88 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


Mr.  Pinch  back  soon  turned  his  attention  to  political  affairs. 
In  the  fall  of  1865  he  spoke  in  Mobile,  Montgomery,  and  Selma, 
Alabama,  denouncing  the  unjust  treatment  which  the  colored 
people  were  receiving  at  the  hands  of  lawless  and  vicious  men. 
April  9,  1867  he  organized  the  Fourth  Ward  Republican  Club  in 
New  Orleans,  and  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  republican 
state  committee,  a  position  he  has  occupied  almost  continuously 
since  that  time.  He  was  appointed  a  commissioner  of  customs  by 
Hon.  Wm.  Pitt  Kellogg,  May  22,  1867,  Mr.  Kellogg  being  col- 
lector of  the  port  at  that  time.  He,  however,  declined  the 
position  to  become  a  candidate  for  a  seat  in  the  constitutional 
convention  then  about  to  be  held.  He  was  elected  and  was  a 
leading  member  of  the  convention.  He  reported  the  civil  rights 
article  guaranteeing  equality  to  all  the  citizens  of  the  state.  At 
the  first  election  under  the  new  constitution  he  was  elected  a  state 
senator.  In  1868  he  was  chosen  a  delegate-at-large  to  the  Chicago 
convention  which  nominated  Gen.  Grant  for  the  presidency. 

The  next  year  he  entered  into  business  and  established  the  com- 
mission and  cotton  factorage  house  of  Pinchback  and  Antoine. 
The  firm  did  an  immense  business  and  had  Mr.  Pinchback  kept  out 
of  politics,  he  would  probably  have  become  one  of  the  wealthiest 
men  in  the  world  in  a  very  short  time.  As  it  was  Jie  accumulated 
a  handsome  fortune. 

In  December,  1870,  Mr.  Pinchback  engaged  in  the  publication 
of  the  New  Orleans  Louisianian,  which  he  continued  about  eleven 
years.  It  was  the  organ  of  the  colored  race.  The  same  year  he 
endeavored  to  organize  a  Mississippi  river  packet  company  but 
did  not  meet  with  sufficient  encouragement  and  he  abandoned  the 
enterprise.  December  6,  1871,  he  was  elected  president  protem  cf 
the  state  senate  to  fill  the  vacancy  occasioned  by  the  death  of  Hon. 
Oscar  J.  Dunn,  and  became  the  Acting  Lieutenant  Governor  of 
the  state.  The  next  year  he  was  nominated  as  the  republican 
candidate  for  governor.  The  federal  office  holders  had  previously 
nominated  Wm.  Pitt  Kellogg  for  that  office.  There  was  also  a 
democratic  ticket  in  the  field,  which  was  certain  of  success  unless  a 
compromise  could  be  made  between  the  two  wings  of  the  republican 
party.  Such  a  compromise  was  finally  arranged  and  Kellogg  was 
made  governor  while  Pinchback  was  elected  congressman- at-large; 
and  the  success  of  this  mutual  arrangement  j^robably  had  the  effect 
of  continuing  republican  supremacy  in  Louisiana  for  three  or  four 
3^ears .  But  there  was  a  factional  fight  raging  inside  of  the  republican 
ranks,  wMch  could  not  fail  to  injure  party  domination  in  tb' 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


89 


long  run,  and  it  seriously  impaired  tlie  hope  of  Governor  Pinch- 
back  continuing  in  the  same  prominence  he  had  occupied  since  the 
close  of  the  war.  Governor  Warmoth  espoused  the  cause  of 
Horace  Greeley,  and  for  a  time  acted  with  the  democratic  party. 
When  the  legislature  convened  Governor  Pinchhack  was  chosen 
United  States  senator,  but  the  Warmoth  republicans  refused  to 
vote  for  him ,  and  although  he  was  declared  elected  and  received  a 
certificate,  there  was  so  much  doubt  surrounding  the  case  that  the 
Federal  senate  refused  to  seat  him.  After  a  continued  reference 
for  three  years,  to  the  senatorial  committee  on  elections,  the  right 
of  Governor  Pinchback  to  be  sworn  as  a  member  was  denied  by  a 
vote  of  29  ayes  and  32  noes.  This  contest  was  a  very  remarkable 
one.  There  was  no  other  claimant  for  the  vacant  seat,  and  Gov. 
Pinchback  was  armed  with  full  credentials  for  the  place  he  sought, 
but  his  right  to  a  seat  w^as  finally  denied.  While  this  long  con- 
test w^as  pending  the  term  of  congress,  to  which  Gov.  Pinchback 
was  elected  as  a  member  at  large  to  the  house  of  representatives, 
expired.  The  very  remarkable  picture  was  presented  in  this 
instance  of  a  man  holding  certificates  of  election  to  both  houses  of 
congress,  and  though  asking  admission,  he  was  not  accepted  in 
either  house. 

When  the  political  troubles  came  on  in  Louisiana  which  fol- 
lowed the  appointment  of  the  National  Electoral  Commission,  in 
1877,  Governor  Pinchback  managed  to  pay  off  some  of  his  political 
debts.  He  was  instrumental  in  having  the  Nicholls  state  govern- 
ment recognized,  although  the  electoral  vote  of  the  state  was 
counted  for  Mr.  Hayes,  while  S.  B.  Packard,  the  republican  candi- 
date for  governor  against  General  Nicholls,  had  more  votes  in  the 
state  than  were  cast  for  the  Haj^es  and  Wheeler  electoral  ticket . 

The  political  asperities  existing  within  the  republican  party  of 
Louisiana,  measurably  died  away  after  the  state  passed  under  demo- 
cratic control.  One  of  the  earliest  acts  of  the  administration  of 
Governor  Kicholls  was  to  appoint  Mr.  Pinchback  a  member  of  the 
State  Board  of  Education,  a  position  he  had  already  held  with 
acceptability  for  six  years.  He  was  appointed  an  internal  revenue 
agent  March  5,  1879,  and  held  the  office  until  he  was  elected,  from 
Madison  Parish,  to  a  seat  in  the  convention  called  to  remodel  the 
first  reconstruction  constitution  of  Louisiana.  He  was  a  delegate  at 
large  to  the  Chicago  convention  of  1880,  which  nominated  Garfield 
and  Arthur,  and  when  General  Arthur  became  President  after 
Guiteau's  assassination  of  President  Garfield,  he  appointed  Gover- 
nor Pinchback  to  the  office  of  collector  at  Js^ew  Orleans. 


90 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


Although  advanced  in  years  beyond  the  ordinary  life  of  students , 
Governor  Pinchback  entered  the  law  school  of  the  State  University 
of  Louisiana,  in  1885,  and  April  10,  1886,  he  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  in  the  city  of  New  Orleans,  just  one  month  before  he  was  forty- 
nine  years  old.  It  is  not  often  that  a  man  passes  through  nearly  a 
half  century  of  existence  before  he  makes  application  for  admission 
to  the  bar  in  the  courts  of  a  great  city,  but  it  must  be  borne  in 
mind  that  Governor  Pinckney  B.  S.  Pinchback  is  a  ver}^  wonderful 
man.    He  would  succeed  where  thousands  of  others  fail. 

Governor  Pinchback  is  in  the  enjoj^ment  of  a  large  legal  practice 
and  is  coining  money.  He  is  wealthy.  There  are  few  men  of  larger 
liberality  than  he.  The  vicissitudes  of  his  life  have  been  such  as 
attach  to  the  fortunes  of  very  few  men.  Of  large  brain,  of  large 
heart  and  broad  views.  Governor  Pinchback  is  a  man  to  make  him- 
self felt  wherever  his  future  lines  may  be  cast.  He  belongs  to  a 
race  of  men  who  could  not  be  otherwise  than  aggressive,  but  his 
aggressions  have  always  been  found  earnest,  and  honest,  as  the  seem- 
ing right  commanded  the  approbation  of  his  judgment.  The  future 
of  Governor  Pinchback  will  likely  be  found  as  interesting  as  his 
past,  if  circumstances  shall  again  call  him  into  the  seething  turmoil 
of  public  strife. 

BLANCHE   K.  BRUCE. 

Here  we  have  a  man  with  a  woman's  name.  He  might  as  well 
have  been  named  Mary  or  Jane  as  Blanche;  but  his  mother  gave 
him  the  name  and  that  is  all  we  know  about  it.  He  bears  it 
worthily  and  well. 

Blanche  K.  Bruce  was  born  in  Virginia,  March  1,  1841.  His 
parents  were  slaves,  and  he  was  born  in  bondage.  In  his  early 
days  his  mother  removed  to  St.  Loais  and  he  grew  nearly  to 
manhood  in  that  city.  While  there,  a  little  barefoot,  ragged 
urchin,  peddling  newspapers  on  the  levee,  he  was  one  day  accosted 
by  a  gentleman  who  was  hastily  making  his  way  down  the  levee, 
enroute  to  a  steamboat  which  was  nearty  ready  to  pnll  out  upon  its 
destination  for  the  lower  Mississippi  river,  with: 

"  Here,  you  damned  little  nigger,  take  this  satchel  and  carry 
it  aboard  that  steamboat/'  pointing  to  it,  "  or  I'll  throw  you  in 
the  river." 

The  boy  took  a  package,  nearly  as  big  as  himself,  and  hurried 
upon  the  steamboat.  The  owner  of  the  luggage  came  aboard  just 
as  the  stage-plank  was  being  pulled  upon  deck ,  and  the  ' '  damned 
little  nigger  ' '  had  to  hustle  ashore  without  getting  one  cent  for  his 
service  as  a  carrier. 


BLANCHE  K,  BEUCi:. 


92 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


Years  passsed  by,  and  the  owner  of  the  satchel  was  a  member 
of  the  United  States  Senate,  from  the  great  State  of  Missouri.  His 
name  was  Lewis  V.  Bogy  (pronounced  Bozhee,  with  accent  on 
the  second  syllable).  While  Mr.  Bogy  was  a  senator,  Mr.  Bruce 
was  made  a  member  of  the  senate  from  Mississippi.  The  Missouri 
senator  had  a  bill  pending  which  was  of  local  importance.  He 
went  to  Mr.  Bruce,  explained  its  importance,  and  solicited  his 
vote.  The  colored  man  promptly  responded  that  he  would  vote 
for  the  bill.    He  then  proceeded  : 

"  Senator  Bogy,  do  yc^i  remember  a  little  ragged  negro  that 
carried  your  carpet-bag  to  a  steamboat,  years  ago,  at  the  St.  Louis 
levee  and  only  received  a  few  divine  curses  for  his  service  ?  " 

"  Yes;  "  said  Mr.  Bogy,  "  what  of  it?  " 

"  Why,  I  am  that  contemptible  little  nigger,"  said  Senator 
Bruce,  "  and  you  owe  me  for  that  service  yet.  Of  course  I  will 
vote  for  your  bill." 

Senator  Bogy  hastily  made  a  computation  of  the  value  of  that 
service  with  compound  interest  and  tendered  payment,  which  was 
promptly  refused.  The  twain,  however,  repaired  to  the  senate 
restaurant  and  "  smiled."  Bogy  and  Bruce  remained  firm  friends 
until  the  death  of  the  former. 

After  the  war  of  negro  independence  Mr.  Bruce  entered 
Oberlin College,  and  took  an  elective  course.  Llis  association  with 
young  gentlemen  of  general  intelligence  awakened  a  dormant 
thirst  for  knowledge  and  the  practical  application  of  scholarly 
information . 

He  migrated  to  Mississippi  after  the  war  and  began  life  as  a 
planter,  believing  that  to  be  his  vocation  in  life,.  In  1868  he  took 
an  active  part  in  political  affairs.  Two  years  later  he  was  sergeant- 
at-arms  of  the  Mississippi  Senate,  and  while  in  that  capacity  was 
thrown  in  active  contact  with  the  best  men  of  the  state.  He  filled 
the  office  of  assessor  for  his  county,  and  was  subsequently  made 
sheriff.  Then  he  was  chosen  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Levee  Com- 
missioners for  the  Mississippi  river. 

In  1874,  Mr.  Bruce  was  made  a  senator  of  the  United  States 
from  Mississippi.  He  served  a  full  term.  During  his  senatorial 
career  he  was  the  friend  of  Roscoe  Conkling,  who  conducted  him 
to  the  bar  of  the  Senate  when  he  was  first  sworn  into  office.  He 
was  made  Register  of  the  Treasury  under  the  regime  of  Mr.  Garfield 
and  is  to-day  doing  a  pension  business  in  Washington.  Blanche 
K.  Bruce  is  a  big  man  every  way. 


THE  COLOEED  3IINISTRY. 


In  presenting  a  few  sketches  of  the  success  in  life  that  has  at- 
tended former  slaves,  after  being  released  from  bondage,  it  is  ap- 
propriate that  honorable  mention  should  be  made  of  men  who  have 
devouth"  stepped  into  the  sacred  desk  and  labored  with  zeal  and 
efficiency  for  the  benefit,  temporal  and  eternal,  of  their  fellow-men. 
In  doing  so  it  is  fair  to  say  the  writer  thinks  there  must  be  intense 
disgust  in  the  minds  of  honorable  people  at  the  expression  of 
Booker  T.  "Washington,  a  colored  man,  holding  the  honorable 
position  of  president  of  the  Tuskegee  Xormal  School,  in  a  commu- 
nication which  he  furnished  to  the  Christian  Union.  After  stating 
that  three-fourths  of  the  Baptist  ministers  and  two-thirds  of  the 
Methodist  "  are  unfit,  either  mentalh'  or  morally  or  both,  to  preach 
the  Gospel  to  anj^one  or  to  lead  anyone,"  the  honorable  professor 
subsides  into  flippancy  and  saj^s: 

The  character  of  many  of  these  preachers  can  be  judged  by  one.  of 
whom  it  was  said  that  while  he  was  at  work  in  a  cotton  field,  in  the  middle 
of  July,  he  suddenh^  stopped,  looked  upward  and  said  :  "  Oh,  Lord,  de  work 
is  so  hard,  de  cotton  is  so  grassy,  an'  de  sun  am  so  hot  —  I  belive  dis  darkey 
am  called  to  preach."  AVith  few  exceptions  the  preaching  of  the  colored 
ministry  is  emotional  in  the  highest  degree,  and  the  minister  considers 
himself  successful  in  proportion  as  he  is  able  to  set  the  people  in  all  parts 
of  the  congTegation  to  groaning,  uttering  wild  screams,  and  jumping,  and 
finally  going  into  a  trance.  One  of  the  principal  ends  sought  by  most  of 
these  ministers  is  their  salary,  and  to  this  everything  else  is  made  sub- 
servient. 

It  msij  be  feared  that  man}'  white  ministers,  highly  educated 
and  very  devoted  to  the  work  of  human  salvation,  have  an  eye  to 
their  salaries  as  the  chief  end  of  man;  and  they  make  ever^^thing 
else  subservient  to  a  X3a3'ment  into  the  treasur}'  of  the  Lord,  for  the 
behoof  of  the  educated  ministry',  of  a  sum  of  money  that  will  make 
them  independent  when  they  grow  old  and  are  "  retired''  by  the 
prder  of  the  congress  of  the  church.  Very  few  —  ah,  how  few  —  of 
the  educated  white  divines  of  the  day  surrender  a  fat  living  to  go 
into  the  wilderness  and  preach  for  a  bare  subsistence!  The  number 
jf  men  who  have  done  this  thing,  under  the  call  of  Jehovah,  are 
iicarcer  than  hen's  teeth,  of  m^^thical  anatom}'.  Ye  proud  diviaes, 
who  condemn  the  service  of  colored  ministers,  are  no  better  than 
they.  Everyone  of  3'ou  work  for  pay,  and  you  would  be  driving 
wagons,  in  all  probability,  in  case  jouv  churches  should  sit  down 
upon  3' our  ministration.  There  is  not,  in  all  the  L^nited  States,  a 
more  devout  set  of  churchmen  than  the  colored  miaisters  of  the 


94 


VAtTGHAN^S  PLEA  FOR  THE   OLD  SLAVES. 


South,  who  preach  the  Gospel  to  men  of  their  color  as  best  they 
know  how,  for  a  bare  subsistence.  They  follow  the  calling  of  the 
Master,  in  spirit  and  in  truth.  The  highest  realm  of  the  churches 
would  be  glad  to  welcome  them  in  the  pulpit,  except  for  their 
color! 

History  does  not  tell  us  the  color  of  the  humble  fishermen ,  call- 
ed in  the  name  of  Jesus,  when  he  planned  the  way  of  universal  salva- 
tion .  It  is  scarcely  probable  that  any  of  them  were  of  the  classes 
from  whence  the  nations  of  the  north  spread  over  the  barren  soil 
of  Europe,  and  finally  adventured  to  America,  perhaps  before  the 
discoveries  of  Columbus.  The  followers  of  the  meek  and  lowly 
Savior  belonged  to  the  southern  climes  of  Europe  and  Asia.  They 
were  of  the  classes  of  men  to  whom  Christ  gave  the  edict  Go 
ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature." 
When  he  sent  them  forth  he  gave  them  a  line  of  service  which  the 
white  men  of  to-day  have  failed  to  follow.  He  said:  "  Provide 
neither  gold  nor  silver  nor  brass  in  your  purses.  Nor  scrip  for 
3^our  journey,  neither  two  coats,  neither  shoes  nor  yet  staves;  for 
the  workman  is  worthy  of  his  meat." 

If  the  churchmen  of  to-day  were  required,  at  final  judgment, 
to  conform  to  the  edict  of  the  Great  Master,  it  is  to  be  feared  that 
the  bottomless  pit  would  be  inhabited  by  whites  and  blacks  in  pro- 
portion to  their  numerical  order,  without  reference  to  their  means 
of  education .  Educational  lines  would  be  a  reproach  to  the  white 
race.  Then  the  golden  rule  might  be  amended  to  read:  "  Do  unto 
others  as  ye  have  done  unto  them." 

REV.   HARVEY  JOHNSON. 

In  Fauquier  county,  Virginia,  August  4,  1843,  Harvey 
Johnson  entered  upon  existence,  the  son  of  slave  parents.  He 
happened  to  belong  to  a  class  of  people  willing  to  accord  to  their 
servants  an  exercise  of  religious  freedom,  even  though  they  were 
unable  to  enjoy  personal  freedom.  He  remained  in  slavery  until 
the  days  of  the  war,  and  when  federal  troops  took  possession  of 
the  surroundings  of  Washington,  Mr.  Johnson  found  no  difficult}- 
in  going  within  the  union  lines,  where  he  had  the  protection  of 
the  federal  troops.  Afterwards  he  took  a  course  of  study  at  the 
Way  land  seminary,  in  the  city  of  Washington,  supported  by  anti- 
slavery  friends.  In  1872  he  began  to  preach,  and  in  the  fall  of 
that  year  he  was  called  to  the  Union  Baptist  church  at  Baltiir  ore, 
Maryland.  He  occupies  the  pulpit  of  that  church  to-day.  He  is 
an  educated  minister  of  the  gospel,  has  an  interesting  family,  and 


REV,  HARViil  JOHNSON* 


96 


VAUGHAN*S  PLEA  ^OR  THE  OLD  ^LAVeS. 


he  is  exerting  his  utmost  efforts  to  promote  the  negro  race  in  the 
social  and  religious  scale. 

Mr.  Johnson  is  in  no  sense  a  politician.  His  professional  work 
occupies  his  whole  time,  coupled  with  a  devoted  interest  in  the 
cause  of  education.  He  is  doing  all  that  his  soul  and  body  can 
endure  to  make  his  people  known  and  honored  among  men.  His 
logic,  his  eloquence  and  his  devout  spirit,  would  introduce  life 
into  many  a  white  congregation,  provided  he  could  spread  a 
mask  over  his  facial  anatomy  and  pose  before  the  people  as  a  fair 
skinned  person.  Verily,  the  face  of  the  Lord  in  eclipse  is  antago- 
nistic to  the  accomplishment  of  the  salvation  of  souls.  The  loyal 
white  element  is  not  disposed  to  trend  unto  salva'  icn  by  the  side 
of  the  negro  who  has  faith  in  God. 

rev.  professor  holmes. 

In  contradistinction  to  most  of  the  people  of  the  black  race, 
who  started  in  life  under  adverse  circumstances,  Prof.  Holmes  is 
an  example  of  the  fact  that  many  southern  masters  were  just  and 
humane.  He  is  still  a  young  man,  comparatively  speaking,  and 
will  probably  be  able  to  do  much  for  the  advancement  of  his  race 
before  he  ceases  his  life  of  labor  and  devotion  to  the  cause  of  his 
people.  It  has  been  a  favorite  theory  since  the  war  to  represent 
the  Southern  people  as  brutal  and  inhuman  in  the  treatment  of 
their  slaves,  but  Prof.  Holmes  is  a  living  example  of  the  fact  that 
many  educated  men  of  the  African  race  will  voluntarily  stand  up 
and  testify  to  the  contrary. 

William  E.  Holmes  was  born  at  Augusta,  Georgia,  January 
22,  1856.  He  was  a  slave.  His  father  belonged  to  one  master 
and  his  mother  to  another.  They  lived  for  a  while  on  adjacent 
plantations  and  were  not  forbidden  family  privileges.  Their 
association  was  harmonious,  and  their  social  relations  were  not 
disturbed  until  the  mother  of  Holmes  was  hired  abroad  to  a  con- 
tracting carpenter,  a  man  of  generous  feelings  and  impulses,  who 
gave  her  large  personal  liberty.  The  carpenter  took  a  liking  to 
the  son  of  his  hired  employe  and  made  him  a  favorite.  He  went 
with  his  master  in  all  his  travels,  and  had  a  bed  in  the  family 
mansion  as  well  as  a  place  at  the  family  table.  Still  the  master  was 
not  in  favor  of  the  abolition  of  involuntary  slavery. 

Mr.  Holmes  had  the  advantage  of  books  and  papers,  and  at 
an  early  age  became  a  fair  scholar.  Aftei»  the  close  of  the  war  the 
devoted  mother  gave  her  son  the  advantage  of  good  instruc- 
tion from  1865  to  1871.    He  became  a  proficient  scholar. 


VArGHAX  S  PLEA  tOR  THE  OLD  StAVES. 


97 


Having  united  with  the  Baptist  church,  Mr.  Holmes  renewed 
his  studies  at  the  Augusta  Institute  and  the  Atlanta  Seminary, 
where  he  graduated  in  1881.  He  had  already  been  ordained  to 
preach,  but  he  continued  his  studies  at  Yale  University  for  two 
years,  making  a  specialty'  of  the  stud}'  of  the  Hebrew  language. 
He  was  made  corresponding  secretary  of  the  Missionary  Baptist 
convention  of  Georgia  in  May,  1883,  and  since  that  date  he  has 
wrought  earnestly  for  the  upbuilding  of  his  church  and  his  race  in 
the  South.  He  is  recognized  as  a  ripe  scholar, a  deep  thinker,  and 
his  lectures  have  received  a  wide  admiration. 

Prof.  Holmes  is  a  trul}' pious  man,  a  scholar  and  a  worker. 
He  does  not  make  his  labor  a  specialty  for  his  race,  but  takes  in 
his  line  of  stud}'  and  assistance  all  the  men  of  the  world.  His 
heart  is  as  big  as  the  universe  though  his  color  is  black.  May 
God  give  to  the  world  many  men  like  Prof.  Holmes. 

REV.  R.  B.  VAXDERVALL. 

This  gentleman  first  saw  the  light  of  day  near  Lesley's  Bend, 
on  the  Tennessee  river,  about  ten  miles  above  the  city  of  Nash- 
ville. His  father  was  a  Virginia  slave,  owned  by  a  man  named 
Carroll  Foster.  His  mother  was  a  slave  woman,  the  property  of 
one  Major  Hall,  who  emigrated  from  Virginia  to  Tennessee  and 
settled  about  ten  miles  above  the  city  of  Nashville.  The  Rev.  Dr. 
Vandervall  is  now  about  59  years  old. 

When  seven  years  old  the  little  boy  Vandervall  was  hired  out 
at  public  sale,  on  New  Year's  day,  pursuant  to  a  statute  then  pre- 
vailing in  Tennessee.  He  had  never  lived  in  a  white  family,  and 
when  an  old  man  came  to  him  saying,  "Come  with  me,"  the  boy 
was  badly  frightened.  He  was  snatched  from  his  mother's  arms, 
placed  on  a  horse  bare-back  and  made  to  ride  twenty-two  miles 
across  the  country.  He  was  thus  ruthlessly  cut  loose  from  all  the 
dear  ties  of  earth . 

In  his  new  abode  the  poor  boy,  who  had  neither  home  nor 
name,  was  made  to  sleep  at  night  rolled  up  in  a  piece  of  rag  car- 
pet, where  he  cried  himself  to  sleep  night  after  night.  In  time  he 
became  accommodated  to  his  situaiion.  He  slept  in  the  house  with 
the  white  family,  and  repeated  the  prayer  nightly  taught  by  his 
slave  mother.  He  enjoyed  one  privilege — he  was  allowed  to  at- 
tend school. 

When  ten  years  old  the  poor  boy  was  taken  to  Nashville,  where 
he  was  hired  to  a  minister  of  the  gospel  named  Garrett.  While  re- 
siding there  the  estate  of  his  old  master,  who  had  died,  was  par- 


REV.  R.  B.  VANDERYALL, 


i 


YAUGHAN*S  PLEA  FOR  THE  OLD  SLAVES.  9^ 

titioned.  He  was  purchased  by  Mr.  Yandervall,  whose  name  he 
continues  to  bear. 

John  Yandervall,  the  son  of  the  master,  took  a  liking  to  the 
lad  and  continued  the  instruction  that  had  been  begun  by  Mr.  Gar- 
rett. He  had  a  religious  turn  of  mind  and  attended  weekl}^  pra^^er 
meetings,  where  he  praj^ed  and  began  to  exhort.  He  took  a  wife 
and  began  to  work  on  a  railroad ,  so  that  he  might  pass  a  part  of 
his  time  with  his  companion  in  the  journey  of  life,  but  his  master 
found  that  he  could  read  and  write,  and  feared  his  intelligence. 
He  threatened  to  sell  him  south.  The  consequence  was  the  young 
man  ran  away.  He  afterwards  returned  home  and  was  hired  to  a 
man  at  Nashville  on  his  own  terms,  paying  his  master  $200  a  year 
for  the  privilege. 

About  this  time  Mr.  Yandervall  had  a  queer  dream.  He 
thought  he  was  sold  to  a  cotton  planter,  and,  fearing  that  the 
dream  would  come  to  a  realit}^,  he  made  a  proposition  to  his  mas- 
ter for  his  own  purchase.  The  olfer  was  accepted,  and  he  paid  a 
stipulated  sum  every  year.  When  he  had  paid  $500  his  master 
made  a  bargain  to  sell  him  into  Texas.  He  ran  away  a  second 
time. 

This  time  friends  intervened  and  the  money  for  his  purchase 
was  paid.  He  took  the  advantage  of  his  freedom,  educated  him- 
self and  began  to  preach.  He  afterward  undertook  the  purchase 
of  his  wife,  and  had  made  the  last  annual  payment  for  her  liberty 
when  the  civil  war  broke  put,  which  would  have  given  her 
freedom . 

Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  instance  of  delivery  from  servi- 
tude is  to  be  found  in  the  case  of  Dr.  Yandervall,  After  the  war 
he  settled  in  East  Tennessee  and  took  a  livel}^  interest  in  the  educa- 
tion of  his  race.  He  continued  his  own  culture  and  has  taken 
high  rank  in  the  institutions  of  the  South  for  the  education  of  the 
colored  race.  He  has  earned  and  received  several  educational  de- 
grees.   Mr.  Yandervall  has  two  sons  who  are  ripe  scholars. 

The  case  of  this  noble  gentleman  of  color  affords  a  notable  in- 
stance of  success  under  difficulties.  If  ever  a  pension  was  deserved 
it  is  in  his  case.  He  is  to-day  modestly  pursuing  the  avocation 
of  a  cultured  Christian  minister . 

JOHN  R.  LYNCH. 

The  history  of  the  negro  race  abounds  with  cultured  orators 
whose  electricity  has  astonished  the  world.  Among  those  who 
have  established  a  name  and  a  fame  within  the  United  States,  no 
man  is  entitled  to  prominence  above  that  of  John  R.  Lynch. 


100 


VAtTGHAN's  PLEA  FOR  THE  OLD  SLAVES* 


The  South  has  produced  a  colored  citizen,  in  the  person  of  Mr. 
Lynch ,  who  has  maintained  his  manhood ,  to  the  honor  of  his  race 
and  his  own  place  in  history . 

John  R.  Lynch  was  born  in  Concordia  parish,  Louisiana,  Sep- 
tember 10,  1847.  He  was  a  slave  and  continued  in  the  life  of  a 
slave  until  he  was  freed  by  the  acts  of  emancipation.  He  had  no 
education  in  early  life,  and  emerged  from  the  reign  of  despotism 
in  utter  ignorance  of  the  qualities  God  had  given  him .  But  the 
light  cannot  be  hidden  completely,  even  when  it  is  under  a  bushel 
measure.  In  the  face  of  his  training  as  a  field  hand,  Mr.  Lynch 
has  risen  to  eminence,  and  is  to-day  recognized  as  a  power  within 
the  land. 

When  the  union  troops  took  possession  of  the  city  of  Natchez, 
his  mother,  who  had  saved  some  means,  gave  her  son  the  benefit 
of  private  instruction.  He  made  himself  acquainted  with  the 
written  history  of  ancient  and  modern  times.  His  first  venture 
in  business  was  in  photography.  While  operating  a  gallery  in 
Natchez  Gov.  Ames  appointed  him  a  justice  of  the  peace  at 
Natchez.  In  the  fall  of  1869  he  was  elected  to  the  legislature  of 
Mississippi.  He  was  re-elected  in  1871,  and  was  made  speaker  of 
the  house  of  representatives  near  the  close  of  the  session.  From 
the  state  legislature  he  was  made  a  member  of  Congress,  and 
served  in  the  Forty-third  and  Forty-fourth  Congresses.  He  was 
again  elected,  fairly ,  to  the  Forty-seventh  Congress,  and  contested 
the  seat  of  the  despicable  General  Chalmers,  of  infamous  Fort 
Pillow  memory. 

While  awaiting  a  report  of  his  case  on  the  part  of  the  house 
committee  on  privileges  and  elections  for  the  Forty-seventh  con- 
gress, Mr.  Lynch  was  one  day  found  walking  along  Pennsylvania 
avenue,  of  the  city  of  Washington,  by  a  gentleman  who  had 
frequently  observed  his  familiar  figure.  He  was  hailed  and  this 
question  asked  of  him: 

''Can  you  tell  me,  my  man,  where  I  can  find  a  competent 
carriage  driver  ?    I  prefer  a  colored  man." 

Mr.  Lynch  said  he  was  not  aware  of  any  person  needing  such 
employment,  but  there  were  doubtless  many  such,  and  he  promised 
to  make  inquiry,  at  the  same  time  making  a  note  of  the  gentle- 
man's name  and  address. 

"You  seem  to  be  pretty  well  informed  as  to  the  localities  of 
Washington  and  Georgetown,  as  I  often  see  you  moving  around. 
Why  cannot  I  employ  you  ?  Evidently  you  are  out  of  a  job. 
What  are  you  doing  anyhow  ?  ' ' 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


101 


"  You  are  right  in  saying  I  am  out  of  a  job  just  now,"  was 
the  reply  of  Mr.  Lynch,  "but  I  hope  to  have  one  pretty  soon.  I 
am  contesting  the  seat  of  Gen.  Chalmers  in  congress  and  think  I 
am  very  liable  to  get  it." 

The  inquirer  looked  at  the  negro  in  a  surprised  manner,  and 
then  remarked:  "I  supposed  I  was  talking  to  a  'nigger'  and  not 
to  a  statesman.    Times  seem  to  have  changed.    Good  day." 

He  walked  off  with  a  bug  in  his  ear. 

When  the  national  republican  convention  met  in  Chicago  in 
1884,  Mr.  Lynch  was  made  temporary  chairman  of  that  body, 
beating  Powell  Cla^^ton,  ex-senator  from  Arkansas,  for  the  honor. 
He  is  the  only  negro  who  ever  presided  over  a  national  conven- 
tion of  any  party  within  the  United  States.  His  knowledge  of 
parliamentary  law,  acquired  while  speaker  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives of  Mississippi,  stood  him  in  good  place.  He  ruled 
decorousl}^,  wisety  and  acceptably. 

Mr.  Lynch  is  married  to  a  southern  colored  lad}^,  and  manages 
a  plantation  in  the  vicinity  of  ISatchez  with  credit  and  profit  to 
himself  and  family.  He  is  moving  quietlj''  in  private  life,  but  is 
likely  to  resume  political  life  at  any  momojit.  He  is  respected 
and  honored  by  all  who  know  him,  whites  and  blacks  alike. 

JOHN  M.  LANGSTON. 

There  lives  to-day  at  Petersburg,  Va.,  a  gentleman  of  distinc- 
tion, though  of  negro  blood,  who  deserves  the  high  regard  of  his 
countrymen  who  admire  true  greatness  whether  clothed  in  a  white 
or  black  skin.  John  M.  Langston  was  born  in  Louisa  county, 
Virofinia,  December  14,  1829.  He  bears  in  his  veins  the  blood  of 
three  races  of  men  —  the  negro,  the  Indian  and  the  Anglo-Saxon; 
but  his  mother  was  a  slave  and  in  pursuance  of  the  edict  of  the 
law  made  by  white  men  he  was  born  in  slavery,  although  his 
father  was  his  master.  He  bears  the  name  of  his  father  and  dif- 
fers from  many  of  his  fellow  slaves  of  other  days  in  this — that  he 
was  not  emancipated  l\y  circumstances  growing  out  of  .the  war  of 
the  rebellion,  but  was  made  free  b}^  the  last  will  and  testament  of 
his  master,  and  that  instrument  made  provision  for  his  education. 
He  does  not,  perhaps,  fall  within  the  classes  designed  to  be  sup- 
plied with  a  pension  under  the  Vaughan  ex-slave  pension  bill,  but 
he  presents  such  an  illustrious  instance  of  great  ability  and  force 
of  character,  and  as  one  of  the  men  who  have  been  ranked  as 
negroes ,  that  it  is  meet  and  proper  that  he  should  receive  an  honor- 
able mention  among  the  noble  men  who  have  sought  to  raise  the 


102 


VAUGHAN  S  PLEA  FOR  THE  OLD  SLAVES. 


black  race  to  a  position  of  deserved  respect  and  prominence.  On 
his  mother's  side  Mr.  Langston  lays  claim  to  the  distinction  of 
having  descended  from  Pocahontas  —  a  distinction  that  he  divides 
with  many  high-born  Virginia  families. 

Made  free  by  virtue  of  his  father's  will,  John  M.  Langston 
was  sent  in  early  life  to  Ohio  with  a  view  of  receiving  proper 
instruction.  He  was  received  as  a  student  at  Oberlin  College  in 
1844  and  graduated  from  that  university  in  1849.  He  was  thus 
launched  upon  the  sea  of  life  a  free  man  of  liberal  education  fully 
thirteen  years  before  Abraham  Lincoln  issued  his  first  proclama- 
tion of  emancipation.  After  his  graduation  at  Oberlin  Mr. 
Langston  made  application  for  admission  to  a  law  school  at  Ballston 
Spa,  near  Saratoga,  managed  by  Prof.  J.  W.  Fowler.  He  was 
denied  admission  on  account  of  his  color!  Liasmuch  as  his  facial 
appearance  and  other  prominent  features  did  not  mark  his  origin , 
he  was  advised  by  friends  to  claim  that  he  was  a  Spaniard,  hailing 
from  the  West  Indies  or  South  America,  so  that  he  might  secure 
matriculation  in  the  law  school.  But  his  better  judgment  rebelled 
against  any  attempt  at  deception.  Mr.  Langston  turned  away 
from  Ballston  with  a  sad  heart  in  order  that  he  might  try  his  for- 
tunes elsewhere.  He  met  with  another  rebuff  at  the  Cincinnati 
law  school,  and  then  concluded  to  read  law  in  the  office  of  some 
private  instructor.  But  in  this  field  of  learning  he  met  with 
scarcely  better  success. 

After  repeated  failure  to  secure  a  student's  place  in  a  private 
law  office,  Mr.  Langston  obtained  the  loan  of  some  elementary 
works  from  the  library  of  Hon.  Sherlock  J.  Andrews,  of  Cleve- 
land, and  began  a  system  of  self-instruction,  receiving  occasional 
suggestions  from  and  making  recitations  to  his  preceptor.  But 
this  method  of  instruction  was  so  unsatisfactory  and  was  attended 
with  so  niany  difficulties  that  Mr.  Langston  finally  concluded  to 
abandon  the  law.  He  returned  to  his  old  a^ma  maier  at  Oberlin 
and  took  a  theological  course,  graduating  in  that  department  in 
1853.  But  his  heart  was  set  upon  a  legal  education-;  and  he  finally 
effected  an  arrangement  whereby  he  entered  the  law  office  of  Hon. 
Philemon  Bliss,  at  Elyria,  Ohio,  where  he  devoted  himself  to  the 
study  of  law  with  singular  assiduity.  In  the  course  of  twelve 
months  Mr.  Langston  made  application  for  admission  to  practice 
in  the  local  courts.  The  presiding  judge  selected  a  committee  for 
his  examination  consisting  of  one  whig  and  two  democratic  at- 
torneys. The  committee  was  sensibly  impressed  with  Mr.  Lang- 
ston's  profound  and  varied  learning,  his  elementary  knowledge  of 


VAUGHAX'S  PLEA  FOR  THE   OLD  SLAVES. 


108 


the  law  being  perfect  and  his  general  knowledge  equal  to  that  of 
a  belles-lettres  scholar.  His  admittance  to  the  bar  was  recom- 
mended, but  here  the  color  line  was  struck  to  his  discomfiture,  the 
question  of  the  right  of  a  court  to  give  a  certificate  to  a  n^gro 
having  been  raised.  A-jout  this  time,  however,  the  supreme  court 
of  Ohio  decided,  in  an  election  contest,  the  term  "negro  or  mu- 
latto" in  the  state  constitution  meant  a  preponderance  of  white 
or  black  blood.  In  the  case  of  Mr.  Langston  it  was  readily  shown 
that  the  preponderance  of  blood  in  his  veins  was  white ,  and  there- 
upon the  local  court  made  an  order  that  he  be  sworn  as  an  at- 
torney. He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  October  24,  1854.  It  is 
doubtful  whether  any  learned  lawyer  ever  had  greater  difficulties 
in  securing  admission  to  practice  before  the  civil  courts  than  those 
which  environed  Mr.  Langston  in  the  early  part  of  his  career. 

After  his  admission  to  the  bar,  Mr.  Langston  settled  at  Brown- 
helm,  Lorain  count}^,  Ohio,  upon  a  farm,  but  within  a  brief  time 
was  associated  with  Mr .  Hamilton  Perr}'' ,  a  profound  lawyer ,  in  the 
trial  of  a  cause  involving  the  title  to  lands.  There  were  no  colored 
people  in  the  vicinit}^.  Tlie  court,  jurors,  witnesses  and  other  at- 
torne^^s  in  the  case  w^ere  white  men.  Mr.  Perry  purposely  en- 
trusted the  management  of  the  cause  to  his  associate,  reserving  to 
himself  only  the  place  of  a  consulting  counsel.  The  trial  of  a  case 
by  a  negro  lawj'er  excited  widespread  local  comment  and  the  court 
was  filled  w'ith  spectators.  The  result  of  the  trial  was  a  sw^eeping 
victory  for  John  M.  Langston.  Thereafter  his  fortune  was  made. 
Business  flowed  in  upon  him,  and  he  had  a  larger  practice  than  he 
was  able  to  accommodate. 

Mr.  Langston 's  first  appearance  as  an  orator  in  the  political 
field  occurred  in  1865.  His  reputation  as  a  law^yer  had  been  so 
great  that  he  w^as  invited  to  attend  and  address  the  May  meeting  of 
the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society,  in  that  year,  at  the  City  of  New 
York.  His  address  was  cultured  and  his  eloquence  magnetic.  At 
the  age  of  36  years  he  found  himself  with  a  national  reputation, 
and  his  name  associated  with  that  aggressive  line  of  heroes  w^hose 
mission  was  the  destruction  of  African  slavery  within  the  United 
States. 

For  several  years  Mr.  Langston  was  intimately  connected  with 
the  cause  of  education  in  the  State  of  Ohio,  and  gave  special  atten- 
tion to  the  organization  of  schools  for  the  education  of  the  colored 
youth  of  that  great  state.  He  held  the  office  of  a  school  visitor  by 
appointment,  and  he  traversed  from  the  lakes  to  the  Ohio  river, 
organizing  schools  wherever  they  w^ere  required  and  secured  for 


104  VAUGHAIf's  PLEA  FOR  THE  OLD  SLAVES. 

them  a  supply  of  teachers .  He  was  engaged  in  this  work  when  the 
war  broke  out  in  1861.  He  immediately  added  to  his  efforts  the 
patriotic  woi'k  of  encouraging  enlistments  for  service  in  the  field. 
He  was  instrumental  in  recruiting  the  54th  and  55th  regiments  of 
Ohio  infantry,  and  after  the  enlistment  of  colored  troops  was  per- 
mitted he  recruited  the  5tii  colored  regiment,  to  which  he  presented 
a  stand  of  colors.  He  visited  Washington  and  asked  of  Secretary 
Stanton  the  privilege  of  recruiting  a  colored  regiment  to  be  of- 
ficered by  colored  men.  His  project  was  endorsed  and  supported 
by  the  late  James  A.  Garfield,  but  was  not  decided  in  time  to  en- 
able him  to  participate  personally  in  the  acts  of  the  war.  After 
the  war  had  concluded,  in  1867,  President  Johnson  appointed  Mr. 
Langston  minister  to  Hayti,  but  he  did  not  accept  the  oflfice.  The 
same  year,  on  motion  of  Mr.  Garfield,  he  was  admitted  to  practice 
law  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  He  was  at 
that  time  actively  engaged  in  the  organization  of  freedmen's 
schools  under  the  appointment  and  instruction  of  General  O.  O. 
Howard,  and  he  deemed  the  work  of  such  importance  that  he  would 
not  leave  it  to  s:o  abroad.  In  this  field  of  labor  he  continued  until 
1869,  when  was  called  to  the  professorship  of  law  in  the  Howard 
University.  He  was  made  dean  of  the  department  and  gave  seven 
of  the  best  years  of  his  life  to  the  up-building  of  that  institu- 
tion. The  college  has  graduated  many  able  law  students,  white 
and  colored,  male  and  female.  During  two  years  of  his  connection 
with  the  college  he  was  its  vice-president  and  president.  The 
degree  of  L.L.  D.  was  conferred  upon  him,  marked  by  an  impressive 
address  from  Gen.  Howard. 

During  the  administration  of  President  Grant,  it  was  his  pleas- 
ure to  name  Mr.  Langston  as  a  member  of  the  board  of  health  of 
the  District  of  Columbia,  and  he  served  six  years  or  more,  as  the 
attorney  of  the  board,  and  a  part  of  the  time  as  its  secretary.  In 
1877  President  Hayes  appointed  him  minister  resident,  and  consul 
general  to  Hayti,  about  ten  years  after  he  had  declined  a  similar 
position  under  Andrew  Johnson.  This  time  he  accepted  and  for 
about  eight  years  did  excellent  and  valuable  service  in  his  diplo- 
matic relations.  He  was  very  popular  at  the  Haytien  Court,  and 
stood  high  with  the  representatives  of  all  governments  represented 
in  that  republic. 

In  January,  1885,  Mr.  Langston  resigned  his  foreign  appoint- 
ment and  returned  home  the  following  summer,  intending  to 
resume  the  practi-ce  of  his  profession.  He  found,  however,  that  he 
had  been  chosen,  by  the  board  of  education  of  Virginia,  president 


YAUGHAX'S   PLEA  FOR  THE   OLD  SLAVES. 


105 


of  the  Virginia  Normal  School  and  Collegiate  Institute,  and  a 
large  annual  appropriation  was  made  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
institution.  His  success  in  managing  this  great  universit}^  has  been 
phenomenal,  and  has  called  forth  the  highest  euconiums  of  those 
associated  with  him,  and  of  the  state  officers  of  Yirgmia. 

In  1888  Mr.  Langston  was  induced,  much  against  his  will,  to 
accept  a  nomination  for  congress  in  the  Petersburg  district  and 
would  have  unquestionably  have  been  elected  b}^  a  large  majority 
but  for  the  antipathy  of  the  friends  of  Gen.  Mahone,  who  induced 
Mr.  R.  AT.  Arnold  to  run  as  an  independent  republican  candidate 
against  him.  According  to  the  official  returns  Mr.  E.G.  Tenable 
(dem.)  received  13,299  votes  in  the  district  ;  Mr.  John  M.  Lang- 
ston (regular  rep.)  received  12,657  votes,  and  Mr.  R.  AT.  Arnold 
(ind.  rep.)  received  3,207  votes.  For  reasons  not  necessarj^  here 
to  state,  Mr.  Langston  contested  the  seat  of  Mr.  Tenable,  and  the 
contest  was  decided  in  Mr.  Langston 's  favor  September  28,  1890. 
It  is  understood  that  Mr.  Langston 's  contest  was  impeded  by  the 
active  opposition  of  Gen.  Mahone  and  his  friends. 

Among  the  men  who  have  risen  from  the  cradle  of  slavery  to 
eminence  none  stand  higher  than  Mr.  Langston.  He  is  a  noble 
product  of  our  free  and  liberal  institutions.  There  is  a  brilliant 
life  yet  awaiting  him. 

COXCLUSIOX   OF  SKETCHES. 

It  would  be  impracticable,  in  the  space  allotted  to  a  volume 
like  the  one  in  hand,  to  include  even  a  brief  sketch  of  the  many 
distinguished  descendants  of  African  parents,  who  have  been  born 
in  slavery  but  who  have  carved  for  themselves  an  enduring  repu- 
tation in  subsequent  lives  of  honor  and  successful  struggle 
against  the  untoward  circumstances  of  their  birth.  It  would  be  a 
pleasure  to  narrate  the  achievements  of  such  a  man  as  the  Rev. 
W.J.  Simmons,  who  distinguished  himself  as  a  Christian  minister 
and  a  man  of  letters.  While  discharging  the  duties  of  the  presi- 
dency of  the  State  L'niversity  at  Louisville,  K}^.,  Dr.  Simmons 
wrote  and  published  a  volume  entitled  ''Men  of  Mark  :  Eminent. 
Progressive  and  Rising,"  which  is  almost  invaluable  as  a  delinea- 
tion of  those  negro  men  of  ability  who  have  honored  their  race  in 
ever}^  department  of  life.  There  have  been  very  many  others  who 
have  emerged  from  the  barbarism  of  slaver}^,  and  through  trials 
and  dangers,  equal  to  the  sufferings  of  the  children  of  Israel  dur- 
ing their  forty  years  of  wanderings  in  desert  and  wilderness,  they 
have  come  forth  at  last  to  benefit  the  human  race.  It  may  seem 
unfair  to  omit  honorable  mention  of  any  of  them ,  put  the  purpose 


106  VAUGHAN*S  PLEA  FOR  THE  OLD  SLAVES. 

in  view  is  not  to  praise,  but  to  make  a  plea  for  justice,  long  de- 
layed, and  in  doing  so  to  satisfy  the  general  reader  that  the  sons 
of  slavery  have  earned  a  recognition  in  the  lives  and  services 
of  those  of  their  number  who  have  been  able  to  outgrow  the  con- 
ditions surrounding  their  birth,  and  to  become  useful  to  the  world 
in  their  day  and  generation. 

Perhaps  it  may  be  said  that  the  writer  of  these  pages  has 
singled  out  a  few  illustrious  examples,  and  that  comparatively  few 
negroes  could,  under  any  circumstances,  cope  with  Dr.  Simmons, 
Frederick  Douglass,  John  M.  Langston,  John  R.  Lynch,  Robert 
B.  Elliott,  Robert  Smalls,  Samuel  R.  Lowery,  John  Wesley  Terry 
and  others,  some  of  whom  have  been  biographically  sketched  in 
these  pages,  while  it  has  not  been  convenient  to  make  creditable 
mention  of  all  of  them .  Such ,  indeed ,  may  be  the  fact .  It  would 
possibly  be  right  to  go  one  step  farther ,  and  to  say  that  even  the 
advantages  of  learning  and  fortune  would  not  fit  all  negroes  to 
rank  with  the  men  whose  names  have  been  mentioned.  But  be- 
cause all  of  the  dusky  race  cannot  rise  to  eminence  in  the  learned 
professions,  in  skilled  trades  or  in  the  strife  of  arms,  it  does  not 
follow  that  a  great  nation  should  refuse  to  those  of  the  race  a 
proper  recognition  for  their  lives  of  toil  who  have  been  held  in 
bondage  for  years,  and  even  for  generations,  and  who  have  finally 
been  turned  loose  by  that  nation  to  starve  and  die  without  any  re- 
sources whatever. 

Those  captious  critics  who  would  suffer  the  ex-slaves  to  look 
upon  their  freedom  from  involuntary  servitude  as  a  full  and  com- 
plete recompense  for  their  former  years  of  captivity,  because  all 
of  them  have  not  shown  their  capacity  to  become  statesmen  and 
scholars,  are  reminded  that  comparatively  few  white  men,  though 
free  from  birth,  have  been  able  to  claim  a  rank  with  Washington, 
Jefferson,  Madison,  Clay,  Webster,  Calhoun,  Irving,  Bryant, 
Longfellow,  Bancroft,  Whittier  and  hundreds  more,  living  and 
dead,  who  have  given  renown  to  our  country  in  statesmanship, 
literature,  science  and  arms.  Yet  courts,  congress  and  legislatures 
have  always  been  ready  to  award  a  full  measure  of  damages  to 
white  men  who  have  suffered  wrong  in  any  way  at  the  hands  of 
the  nation,  the  states  or  the  people.  Only  in  the  case  of  the  negro 
do  we  find  an  indisposition  to  right  a  wrong  that  has  followed  the 
sad  fortunes  of  that  race  from  the  time  when  their  forefathers 
were  dragged  unwilling  captives  to  American  soil  and  loaded  down 
with  the  galling  chains  of  slavery.  The  error  is  as  old  as  the  gov- 
ernment— yea,  older  than  that — it  began  with  the  discovery  of  the 


VAUGHAN  S  PLEA  FOR  THE   OLD  SLAVES. 


107 


western  hemisphere  and  has  continued  unto  the  present  day,  in 
spite  of  the  work  of  emancipation  which  bade  the  black  man  lift  up 
his  head  and  snuff  the  air  of  liberty  as  the  natural  right  of  man . 
But  liberty  without  compensation  for  the  long  era  of  slavish  toil 
is  but  a  mockery  of  justice. 

In  how  many  instances  has  the  book  of  time  recorded  the  fact 
that  some  poor  mortal  has  been  made  the  victim  of  a  chain  of  cir- 
cumstances which  dragged  him  from  his  home  to  become  the  inmate 
of  a  prison  cell  ?  In  the  lapse  of  time  his  innocence  was  established. 
The  state  made  haste  to  unbar  the  prison  doors  and  set  the  victim 
free.  In  all  such  cases  a  reparation  for  the  wrong  of  imprisonment 
has  been  made  from  the  public  treasury.  And  the  money  value, 
fixed  as  a  recompense  for  the  years  of  anguish,  torture  and  im- 
prisonment, has  been  gauged  by  a  liberal  if  not  a  lavish  hand.  It 
was  due  to  the  victim  of  the  law's  mistake,  that. he  should  be  treat- 
ed with  a  generosity  commensurate  with  the  injustice  he  suffered 
on  the  part  of  the  state  when  it  laid  its  hand  upon  him  in  error 
and  branded  him  as  a  felon  stained  with  crime . 

If  the  state  stands  ready  to  offer  liberal  remuneration  to  the 
citizen  who  has  suffered  a  term  of  imprisonment  in  obedience  to  an 
error  of  a  court  of  justice,  how  much  the  more  ready  should  a 
great  government  always  be  to  repair  its  error  in  holding  a  count- 
less class  of  its  subjects  in  the  horrors  of  vassalage  during  genera- 
tion after  generation  of  mankind  ?  In  the  one  case  the  prisoner 
was  suspected  of  a  crime  which  subsequent  events  domonstrated  he 
did  not  commit.  In  the  other  case  there  was  not  even  an  unjust 
suspicion  of  wrong-doing  upon  which  the  torture  of  captivity  could 
be  exercised.  The  misfortune  of  caste  alone  served  the  purpose 
of  burning  the  brand  of  slavery  upon  the  backs  of  mj'riads  of 
human  beings.  Might  was  law  and  right  was. not  recognized. 
The  toil,  the  sweat,  the  groans,  the  tears,  and  even  the  blessings 
of  years  of  human  slavery,  stand  up  in  a  line  together  and  appeal 
to  the  congress  of  the  United  States  to  be  just  to  the  injured  men 
and  women  of  the  negro  race  Avho  have  borne  the  heat  and  burden 
of  the  era  of  slavery,  and  who  have  lost  home  and  fireside  ia 
answer  to  a  praj^er  for  human  freedom  ! 

Incidental  to  the  advancement  made  by  former  subjects  of 
slavery,  since  the  acquirement  of  their  freedom,  it  may  be  stated 
that  the  free  people  of  color  within  the  United  States  have  presented 
some  notable  examples  of  eminence  in  various  departments  of 
life  ;  and  the  success  of  such  persons  has  unquestionably  wrought 
a  wholesome  influence  upon  the  brightest  of  the  negroes  who 


108 


V^AUGHAN^S  PLEA  FOR  THE  OLD  SLAVES. 


emerged  from  slavery.  Animated  by  the  knowledge  that  persons 
of  their  own  color  had  acquired  property,  in  a  measure  that  gave 
them  prominence  and  respectability,  the  freedmen  who  were 
ambitious  of  making  the  most  of  their  new  condition,  made  haste 
to  secure  education  and  then  to  apply  that  education  in  a  practical 
and  beneficent  manner.  Of  course  the  plea  for  a  pension  to  be 
granted  to  the  freedmen  of  the  former  slave  states  does  not  apply 
to  those  persons  of  color  who  have  been  free  from  their  birth. 
But  no  class  of  men  will  rejoice  more  heartily  than  negroes  who 
have  never  been  slaves  to  see  ample  justice  done  to  their  fellow 
men  who  have  endured  the  distress  of  slavery  in  former  days.  In 
the  days  of  the  great  civil  war,  when  the  first  gleam  of  the  sunlight 
of  liberty  seemed  about  to  pierce  the  black  cloud  of  bondage,  all 
over  the  North  and  in  many  parts  of  the  South,  the  first  rays  of 
political  independence  were  watched  for  eagerly  and  welcomed  with 
glad  alacrity  by  no  association  of  men  with  the  same  solicitude 
that  characterized  the  free  men  of  color.  While  universal  freedom 
would  add  nothing  to  their  well-being,  except  to  extend  their  lines 
of  usefulness  and  to  enable  them  to  enter  upon  a  larger  arena  in 
the  pursuit  of  commercial  and  business  avocations,  they  had  that 
natural  love  and  affection  for  the  people  of  their  race  that  their 
hearts  swelled  with  feelings  of  gratitude,  patriotism  and  true 
christian  devotion  at  the  prospect  of  personal  liberty  throughout 
the  land  to  all  the  inhabitants  thereof.  And  when  at  last  the  edict 
went  forth  which  surrendered  the  shackles  of  nearly  six  millions 
of  human  beings  into  the  giant  grasp  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  the 
anthem  of  praise  and  the  voice  of  thanksgiving  swelled  up  from 
the  hearts  of  the  free  men  of  color  in  every  part  of  the  land  with 
an  enthusiasm  that  bespoke  them  a  happy  people,  devoutly  thank- 
ful to  Almighty  God  for  the  boundless  favor  of  freedom  to  all 
mankind  without  regard  to  race,  color  or  previous  condition  of 
bondage . 

That  the  goodly  example  of  the  best  element  of  the  original 
free  negro  population  has  had  much  to  do  in  the  amelioration  of 
the  condition  of  the  ex-slaves  there  can  be  no  manner  of  doubt  or 
question.  The  history  of  the  United  States  abounds  with  the 
glorious  work  of  such  noble  men  of  the  African  race  as  Rev.  W.  B. 
Derrick,  D. D., Rev.  James  A.  D.  Pond  (deceased),  Rev.  Theodore 
Doughty  Miller,  D.D.,  Rev.  Henry W.  Chandler,  and  many  other 
christian  ministers  of  the  gospel;  J.  D.  Baltimore  who  had  a  high 
reputation  as  a  mechanical  engineer ;  and  a  musical  composer  of  the 
ability  of  Henry  F.  Williams;  such  distinguished  lawyers  as  Jamos 


VArCxHAX'?  PLEA  FOE   THE   OLD  SLATES. 


109 


C.  Matthews,  who  was  Mr.  CleTeland's  register  of  deeds  at  TTash- 
fngton,  Alexander  Clark.  Prof.  T.  McC.  Stewart,  and  a  score  of 
ethers  of  the  same  profession,  dozens  of  distinguished  physicians, 
and  hosts  of  the  ablest  teachers  in  the  land.  In  proportion  to 
their  number  it  may  be  seriously  Cjuestioued  whether  there  can  be 
found  within  the  conhnes  of  tiiis  great  American  union  of  states  a 
more  talented  body  of  men  than  the  professional  and  scientific 
eitizens  of  color  who  were  free  from  their  childhood.  In  the  race 
of  progress  they  have  kept  even  with  the  rapid  advance  of  civili- 
zation, and  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  they  have  stimu- 
lated manhood,  education  and  social  eminence  among  their  bretiiren 
released  from  the  thraldom  of  slavery.  AVhiie  no^  beneticiaries 
themselves  of  the  proposed  act  for  the  pensiuu  oi  freedmen  it  is 
very  certain  that  the  ex-slaves  will  not  rejoice  more  heartily  than 
the  free  men  of  color  over  the  passage  of  sucli  a  just  and  righteous 
statute. 

It  may  be  safely  assumed  that  the  more  the  proposition  shall  be 
discussed,  to  extend  a  just  and  equitable  system  of  pensions  to  the 
persons  who  were  restrained  of  their  natural  liberty  during  a 
large  portion  of  their  lives,  the  greater  favor  it  will  find  with  all 
rational  and  thinking  men.  It  has  been  very  justly  remarked  in 
moral  philosophy  that  there  is  no  excellence  without  great 
labor."  It  may  also  be  said  that  no  reform  was  ever  proposed  in 
government  without  encountering  the  severest  criticism  and  oppo- 
sition of  ignorance,  as  well  as  of  that  class  of  capitalists  who  berate 
any  act  of  justice  which  is  likely  to  call  fur  an  assessment  for  taxa- 
tion upon  their  stores  of  wealth.  It  is  to  be  expected  that  the 
proposition  to  pension  ex-slaves  of  thi-  Republic  wiil  call  forth 
bitter  opposition,  intense  efforts  at  ridicule  and  sarCiism.  and  in 
many  instances  the  most  disgusting  ribaldry  and  even  obscenity. 
In  truth  the  work  of  misrepresentation  and  detraction  ha3  actually 
begun . 

Such  newspapers  as  the  Chicago  Herald,  the  Xashville  Araeri- 
can.  ami  the  Cleveland  Lead'^r  AiixxQ  opened  thfir  liatteries  already, 
and  while  the  style  of  objection  is  different  in  the  several  prints, 
the  objective  point  is  the  same  in  every  case — the  vast  expense  to 
the  tax-payers  attendant  upon  the  passage  of  an  ex-slave  pension 
law.  In  some  instances  it  has  been  asserted  that  it  will  entail  upon 
the  federal  treasury  a  tax  of  two  hundred  billion  dollars  within 
the  next  thirty  years  I  Could  anything  be  more  ridiculous  ?  TThy. 
estimating  the  number  (jf  slav  es  emancipated  from 'bondage  at  five 
millinns.  and  if  all  of  thfUi  we^v  alive  to-day.  and  the  government 


110' 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


should  pay  into  their  hands  a  thousand  dollars  apiece,  the  total 
sum  of  the  payment  would  only  be  five  billion  dollars,  or  One-for- 
tieth of  the  sum  it  has  been  gravely  stated  the  passage  of  the  pro- 
posed pension  law  will  entail  upon  the  government  in  thirty  years 
time  !  As  a  fact,  it  msij  be  said,  the  whole  amount  this  pension 
act  may  call  for  will  not  amount  to  a  tenth  part  of  five  billions. 

But  it  is  not  the  purpose  of  the  writer  to  enter  into  an  argu- 
ment with  the  phantasy  of  a  diseased  or  deluded  brain.  An  appeal 
to  logic  and  facts  will  be  maintained  in  the  face  of  derision.  The 
enormous  expense  account  attendant  upon  the  passage  of  a  just 
measure  is  not  likely'  to  frighten  any  person  who  desires  to  see  the 
integrity  of  this  great  nation  maintained  in  purit}^  and  reality. 
Had  the  people  of  the  several  states  stopped  to  figure  in  1861, 
when  the  shore  batteries  at  Charleston  were  opened  upon  Fort 
Sumter,  and  had  their  cupidity  exceeded  their  patriotism,  it  is 
probable  there  never  would  have  been  another  shot  fired  after 
Major  Robert  Anderson  and  his  gallant  little  band  had  made  their 
surrender.  But  the  expense  attached  to  the  maintenance  of  the 
war  was  not  taken  into  account.  Neither  were  the  people  appalled 
at  a  contemplation  of  the  rivers  of  blood  that  must  flow,  the  homes 
that  must  be  made  desolate,  the  dreary  waste  that  must  follow  in 
the  wake  of  contending  armies,  nor  the  millions  that  would 
be  expended,  year  after  year,  for  the  pensions  of  union  sol- 
diers and  their  dependent  families.  After  the  lapse  of  nearly 
thirty  years  it  is  now  found  that  the  pension  roll  is  many  millions 
greater  than  it  was  when  the  angel  of  peace  spread  its  wings  over 
the  land  and  put  an  estoppel  upon  the  effusion  of  blood. ^ 

The  questions  to  be  decided  are  these :  Was  the  act  of  emanci- 
pation right  ?  Did  the  emancipation  turn  millions  of  slaves  from 
homes  of  comfort  into  a  condition  of  penury  and  want  ?  Has  the 
freedom  of  the  negro  entailed  poverty  upon  the  aged  and  helpless 
and  made  many  of  them  the  inmates  of  alms-houses  and  the  sub- 
jects of  public  charity  ?  If  so,  what  is  the  plain  duty  of  a  great 
government  to  the  helpless  creatures  whom  it  once  rated  as  chattel 
property  and  compelled  the  taxation  of  their  bodies  for  the  support 
of  the  state  ? 

These  questions  will  have  to  be  answered  in  the  calmness  of 
reason  and  not  in  the  ribaldry  of  a  cruel  jest.  Once  presented 
fairly  to  the  sober  second  thought  of  a  justice-loving  people,  and 
the  voice  of  humanity  will  speak  to  the  hearts  of  the  people,  bid- 
ding them  to  do  right  at  every  hazard . 


VAUGHAX'S  PLEA  FOR  THE   OLD  SLATES. 


Ill 


It  has  been  already  said  that  great  reforms  move  slowly.  But 
when  they  have  once  begun  to  move,  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
staying  their  onward  march.  "When  James  G-.  Birne}^  was  first 
made  the  presidential  candidate  of  the  old  liberty  party  in  1840, 
he  received  barely  more  than  7.000  votes  in  all  the  United  States. 
He  was  a  candidate  again  in  1844  and  received  62,000  votes.  The 
anti-slaver}^  sentiment  had  begun  to  grow.  Sixteen  3'ears  later  it 
swept  the  land,  carrying  down  the  old  political  organizations  before 
it.  It  was  persistent  discussion  that  accomplished  such  a  result. 
So  will  it  be  in  the  matter  of  righting  the  wrongs  which  our  nation 
has  suffered  to  exist,  No  ridicule,  or  denunciation,  or  effort  to 
affright  timid  capital  will  be  able  to  call  a  halt.  The  work  in 
hand  is  right,  and  the  right  must  and  will  prevail. 


ADDRESS. 

An  open  address  to  the  Congressional  Committee  that  nov:  has,  or 
that  may  hereafter  have,  the  Ex-Slave  Pension  Bill  before  it  for 
consideration,  let  me  say: 

Gextle3iex  of  the  Committee: — In  asking  consideration  for 
the  rough  draft  of  an  act.  which  I  conceive  to  be  just,  having  in 
view  the  pensioning  of  freedmen  who  have  become  old  since  they 
acquired  their  freedom  in  pursuance  of  the  two  proclamations  of 
ex-President  Lincoln  and  of  the  acts  of  congress  and  of  the  conven- 
tions of  sovereign  states  whereby  an  enslaved  people  were  made 
free.  I  have  to  say,  that  you  will  find  much  to  be  added  and  a 
wide  range  for  an  interchange  of  opinions  as  to  the  methods  that 
ought  to  be  observed  in  putting  such  an  important  work  into 
successful  operation.  The  principal  thought  involved  is  justice 
towards  a  once  enslaved  race,  and  to  afford  a  people  who  have  been 
made  citizens  and  participants  in  the  affairs  of  the  government, 
with  the  means  of  competing  with  their  fellow  men  of  other  races 
and  better  surroundings  in  the  combat  of  life.  As  long  as  these 
people  were  regarded  as"  chattels — the  hewers  of  wood  and  the 
drawers  of  water  for  those  who  chanced  to  be  placed  above  them 
in  the  circumstances  of  life — their  physical  comfort  was  looked 
after  by  those  who  received  the  direct  benefit  of  their  manual  labor. 
But  in  the  course  of  human  events  these  men  have  been  made  free, 
and  they  have  started  in  the  race  of  life  in  competition  with  a  race 
that  has  never  suffered  the  horrors  and  injustice  of  subjugation. 
It  may  be  apparent  to  3'ou,  gentlemen,  that  in  such  a  race  the 
negro  suffers  an  unspeakable  disadvantage.    To  expect  that  he 


Vaughan's  plea  foe  The  old  slaves. 


would  be  able  to  perform  well  the  part  assigned  to  him  in  his  new 
condition,  is  giving  him  credit  for  a  superiority  that  does  not 
attach  to  human  existence.  It  was  honorable  to  the  government 
to  accord  him  his  freedom  at  a  time  when  the  life  of  the  nation 
appeared  to  tremble  in  the  balance,  but  that  he  should  have  made 
the  very  best  use  of  freedom  for  the  advancement  of  his  own  weal 
and  that  of  his  late  fellow  slaves  was  scarcely  to  have  been  ex- 
pected. The  wonder  is,  that  he  has  done  as  well  for  himself  as 
we  observe  him  to  have  accomplished.  Perhaps  the  white  race, 
similarly  circumstanced,  could  not  have  done  more. 

You  will  admit,  gentlemen,  that  the  government  did  not  make 
the  bondmen  free  from  downright  good  will.  It  has  been  a  boon 
accorded  to  the  down-trodden  because  in  the  sturdy  forms  and 
physical  strength  of  millions  of  slaves  an  element  was  seen  that 
might  be  made  useful  in  the  suppression  of  a  gigantic  rebellion. 
It  was  manifestly  the  right  and  duty  of  those  entrusted  with  the 
administration  of  the  government  to  make  use  of  those  means 
which  God  and  nature  had  placed  within  their  power.  Even  Pres- 
ident Lincoln,  at  the  outset  of  the  rebellion,  said  that  if  he  could 
maintain  the  union  by  saving  the  institution  of  slavery,  that  he 
would  save  it.  But  he  found  that  the  salvation  of  the  union 
depended  largely  upon  the  destruction  of  that  institution,  and  he 
struck  the  blow  that  surely  destroyed  it.  Since  then  congress  has 
habilitated  the  freedmen  with  the  right  of  franchise,  and  has  opened 
to  him  the  avenues  of  preferment.  What  the  Negro  lacks  is  the 
means  placed  in  his  hands  that  will  enable  him,  and  those  that 
come  after  him,  to  hold  up  their  heads  and  take  a  part  in  the  avo- 
cations of  life  that  will  be  honorable  and  just  to  an  enfranchised 
race.  This,  gentlemen,  congress  can  do  by  the  passage  of  the  bill 
before  you  into  a  law,  after  your  wisdom  and  experience  shall  have 
perfected  its  details,  and  surrounded  it  with  such  safeguards  as  will 
make  it  a  prudent  law  for  the  colored  citizens,  while  the  federal 
treasury  will  be  sufficiently  protected  from  fraud. 

When  the  southern  slaves  were  recognized  as  chattel  property, 
subject  to  all  the  fluctuations  of  an  article  that  possessed  a  market- 
able value,  they  were  made  the  subjects  of  taxation,  and  as  such 
contributed  their  share  of  revenue  to  the  treasury,  in  one  shape 
and  another,  enabling'  the  government  to  declare  war,  conclude 
peace  and  to  contract  alliances.  After  having  been  the  subject  of 
taxation  for  the  benefit  of  the  government,  that  government  has 
seen  fit  to  strike  the  shackles  from  the  limbs  of  the  slave  and  to 
convert  the  chattel  into  a  citizen.    As  a  chattel,  surrounded  by  an 


vaughan's  plea  foe  the  old  slaves. 


113 


implacable  bondage,  that  could  encompass  no  work  but  the  service 
expected  from  vassalage,  the  negro  could  make  no  demand  upon 
the  government.  Havmg  been  made  a  citizen  without  the  asking 
of  such  a  boon ,  it  is  the  citizen  that  now  arises  and  asks  the  gov- 
ernment of  which  he  is  a  part,  to  do  b}^  him  that  degree  of  justice 
that  will  enable  him  to  perform  an  honorable  part  in  life.  Place 
in  his  hands  the  means  to  rival  the  white  race  and  then  judge  him 
by  the  fruits  of  his  afterwork.  The  bill  before  3'our  committee, 
gentlemen,  will  go  a  long  way  in  the  direction  of  doing  fairness 
and  justice. 

But  there  is  another  view  of  this  question  that  is  entitled  to 
3"Our  candid  consideration .  Much  of  the  prosperity  that  has  attended 
northern  communities  since  the  conclusion  of  hostilities  between 
the  North  and  South,  growing  out  of  the  late  civil  war,  has  come 
about  in  consequence  of  the  quarterl}"  distribution  of  pension 
money  voted  by  congress  to  the  surviving  union  soldiery.  That 
source  of  prosperit}^  has  not  extended  to  the  Southern  States  in  a 
very  large  degree.  Comparatively  few  Union  soldiers  were  enlisted 
at  the  South,  and  the  number  who  have  become  residents  of  that 
section  since  the  war  make  up  but  a  light  percentage  of  the  general 
population.  The  passage  of  a  measure  that  would  place  former 
slaves  upon  the  pension  rolls  would  not  only  be  the  performance 
of  a  delaj^ed  act  of  justice,  to  a  once  enslaved  race,  but  it  would 
occasion  an  expenditure  of  treasure  throughout  the  entire  southern 
region  that  would  visibly  enhance  the  material  prosperity  of  all 
classes  of  people  within  that  section.  So  it  appears  that  every 
consideration  of  enlarged  wisdom  and  political  econom}"  calls  aloud 
for  the  passage  of  some  such  law  as  it  is  now  your  province  to 
consider . 

In  conclusion,  gentlemen,  permit  me  to  say  that  all  great  and 
generous  nations  have  been  ready  and  willing  to  make  a  valuable 
recompense  for  the  wrongs  they  iiave  perpetrated  towards  other 
nations  or  to  individuals  for  errors  of  administration  or  acts  of 
wrong  or  oppression.  Indemni'y  between  great  states  and  growing 
out  of  a  condition  of  war  has  been  the  rale  of  the  world.  Our 
own  countr}^  exacted  vast  tribute  from  Mexico  because  of  the  war 
that  raged  in  1846  and  1847.  The  possession  by  us  of  California 
and  the  vast  territories  adjacent  came  to  us  in  that  way.  France 
emptied  into  the  coffers  of  German}^  a  nearl}^  fabulous  wealth  in 
the  settlement  of  their  last  appeal  to  arms.  Great  Britain  did  not 
hesitate  to  reimburse  the  people  of  this  countrv  with  fifteen  mil- 
lions of  money  for  the  ravages  committed  upon  American  com.- 


114 


vaughan's  plea  for  The  old  slaves. 


merce  during  the  existence  of  our  civil  war.  But  these  things 
were  not  a  tithe  of  the  error  endured  for  ages  by  the  enslaved 
people  of  these  states.  We  have  souglit  in  a  measure  to  remedy 
that  error,  but  the  remedy  so  far  provided  only  exhibits  to  public 
gaze  the  enormity  of  the  wrong  patiently  endured,  and  for  which 
the  pending  measure  provides  more  complete  and  ample  satisfac- 
tion. As  we  measure  justice  to  a  wronged  race  of  people  so  it  may 
be  meted  to  us  again  should  the  hour  of  extremity  ever  come. 


AN  OPEN  ADDRESS. 

To  the  Colored  Citizens  of  the  United  States  horn  in  slavery  and 

liberated  hy  means  of  geiieral  emancipation: 

Fellow  Citizens:  —  Though  not  a  member  of  Congress, 
charged  with  the  enactment  of  laws  for  the  weal  of  all  citizens  of 
our  common  country  irrespective  of  race,  class  or  condition,  I  am, 
nevertheless,  one  who  has  given  the  subject  of  your  emancipation 
a  candid  study  and  considerable  earnest  thought,  especially  with 
respect  to  the  changes  it  has  entailed  upon  you  and  your  progeny, 
and  the  just  obligations  which  the  government  has  assumed  or 
ought  to  have  assumed  in  extending  to  your  race  the  boon  of 
being  made  freemen.  As  one  of  the  results  of  such  thought  and 
investigation,  I  have  prepared  and  had  presented  in  Congress, 
through  the  medium  of  my  direct  representative,  a  bill,  which,  in 
my  estimation,  will  make  substantial  progress  in  conferring  upon 
you  the  proper  benefits  of  freedom  and  enable  the  younger 
generation  to  perform  well  their  part  in  the  high  field  of 
usefulness,  wherein  they  have  been  made  actors  and  participants. 
I  am  not  prepared  to  say  that  the  bill  in  question  covers  all  the 
minutife  of  a  comprehensive  and  intelligent  law,  but  in  general  I 
hope  the  benefits  designed  to  be  conferred  are  set  forth  wiLh 
such  precision  as  to  be  comprehensible  in  respect  to  the  intent  and 
purpose  of  the  proposed  act.  Deficiencies  can  be  readily  supplied 
and  errors  —  if  found  to  exist — ^can  easily  be  remedied.  The 
main  object  in  view  will  readily  appear  even  to  the  most  casual 
observer,  and  I  am  persuaded  that  reflection  and  observation  will 
commend  the  measure  to  the  approval  of  the  sober  second  thought 
of  the  people . 

The  general  tenor  of  the  bill  presented  to  Congress  and  to  the 
people  for  the  first  time,  comprehends  the  pensioning  b}^  the 
government  of  such  of  the  African  race  as  were  born  in  bondage 


Vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


115 


and  have  been  made  free  by  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  of 
Ex-President  Lincoln  and  the  la^^s  of  the  United  States  and  of  the 
several  states  of  the  Union  where  slaverj-  formerly  existed,  organic 
and  statutory,  which  have  been  passed  in  pursuance  of  those 
proclamations  or  consistentlj-  therewith.  In  shaping  such  a  law 
it  has  appeared  just  to.  me  that  a  bonus  in  a  suitable  sum  should 
be  given  to  those  older  persons  who  stood  the  brunt  of  years  of 
serfdom,  and  who  in  the  order  of  nature  have  not  long  to  remain 
amongst  us  in  the  enjo^^ment  of  the  blessings  of  freedom.  This 
bonus  has  been  graduated  in  lesser  sums  to  those  recipients  who  are 
younger  in  3-ears  and  whose  prospect  of  longer  life  it  appears  to 
be  natural  to  hope  for,  until  a  fair  monthly  stipend  is  onl}^  given 
to  those  who  did  not  suffer  greatly  the  rigors  of  unjust  laws  and 
who  have  the  battle  of  life  before  them.  As  before  stated,  if 
anj'thing  is  wanting  to  make  the  operation  of  the  proposed  law 
uniform  and  justl}-  fair  to  the  people  sought  to  be  benefited,  that 
want  can  easily  be  supplied  when  it  is  found  to  exist.  For  the 
X^resent  a  great  work  will  have  been  done  in  case  public  attention 
can  be  drawn  to  the  subject  in  hand  and  a  general  approval  of  the 
body  politic  secured . 

It  is  proper  for  me  to  say  that  this  subject  is  not  a  sudden 
impulse  on  my  part,  and  I  have  not  thrust  it  before  the  law- 
making power  with  undue  haste.  3Iany  3'ears  have  elapsed  since 
the  inspiration  of  the  righteousness  of  some  such  measure  first 
dawned  upon  m}^  mind  and  since  first  I  became  persuaded  that  some 
such  proceeding  was  merited  and  due  to  a  down-trodden  people .  I 
have  ' '  made  haste  slowh^ '  *  in  bringing  the  subject  to  public 
attention .  Like  heroic  old  David  Crockett  I  wished  to  "  be  sure  I 
was  right  and  then  go  ahead."  To  this  end  I  have  canvassed  the 
matter  dispassionateh^  with  many  leading  and  active  citizens 
—  persons  who  were  informed  in  public  affairs  —  and  have 
corresponded  with  a  great  man}"  others  who  occupy  high  stations 
in  civil  life.  With  surprising  uniformity  I  have  found  the  subject 
to  be  one  that  has  been  new  to  the  people,  generall}"  requiring 
thought  and  investis^ation  to  enable  them  to  arrive  at  a  conclusion 
in  the  premises.  In  looking  over  my  correspondence,  which  has 
embraced  experienced  statesmen  and  law  makers,  I  have  not  found 
that  any  of  them  have  been  ready  to  advance  a  project  that  seems 
to  me  just  and  equitable,  and  the  performance  o-f  which  ought  not 
to  be  longer  seriously  delaj^ed.  TThen  President  Harrison  was  in 
the  Ignited  States  Senate  I  asked  his  opinion  of  the  scheme  now 
laid  before  Congress,  but  did  not  obtain  his  thorough  assent  to  the 


116 


VAUGHAn's  plea  for  fHE  OW  SLAVES* 


proposition.  Others  like  unto  him  were  halting  between  twd 
opinions .  As  years  have  rolled  awsLj  since  this  matter  was  brought 
to  their  attention  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  they  are  now  ready  to  lend 
a  helping  hand  in  the  promotion  and  success  of  a  worthy  cause.  It 
may  be  that  direful  opposition  will  be  meted  out  to  the  measure 
now  brought  to  the  notice  of  the  people,  but  I  am  buoyed  up  in 
my  purpose  to  have  it  thoroughly  agitated  by  the  reflection  that 
all  great  reforms  have  triumphed  over  persistent  opposition. 

In  addressing  the  colored  people  directly  interested  in  the 
proposed  measure,  I  wish  to  enlist  them  actively  in  a  matter  that 
appeals  personally  to  them  and  theirs.  Their  correspondence  and 
encouragement  is  solicited,  and  suggestions  looking  to  the 
furtherance  of  the  scheme,  beneficial  mainly  to  them,  which  is 
now  for  the  first  time  publicly  proposed,  are  most  respectfull}^ 
solicited . 

I  have  prepared  the  following  petition  in  order  that  all 
petitions  signed  might  be  alike,  and  have  caused  the  same  to  be 
extensively  published  and  circulated,  and  reproduce  it  here  that 
you  and  all  friends  of  justice  ma}^  carefully  read  the  same,  and  aid 
me  at  once  in  securing  signers  to  Congress,  that  a  great  national 
wrong  may  be  righted. 

TO  THE  PRESS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

Very  recently  the  subscriber  sent  to  all  newspapers  whereof  he  had 
knowledge,  which  make  a  specialty  of  representing  the  sentiments  and 
feelings  of  the  African  race,  either  in  business,  religion  or  politics,  copies 
of  "The  Omaha  Sunday  Democrat"  containing  the  text  of  house  bill 
1,119,  introduced  in  congress  by  Hon.  W.  J.  Connell,  of  the  First  Nebraska 
district,  at  the  request  of  W.  R.  Vaughan,  proposing  a  pension  for  ex- 
slaves  who  were  made  free  by  the  proclamation  of  Abraham  Lincoln  and 
subsequent  acts  of  congress,  the  same  being  confirmed  by  constitutional 
amendments  and  statutory  laws  of  the  several  states  adopted  at  later 
dates.  In  most  instances  the  newspaper  organs  of  the  colored  people  have 
been  silent  touching  a  measure  of  unquestionable  justice  to  the  subjects 
of  slavery  emancipation,  probably  through  a  becoming  sense  of  modesty 
on  the  part  of  the  managers  and  publishers. 

Believing  that  the  newspaper  which  appeals  directly  to  negro  support 
must  have  the  interest  of  the  race  at  heart,  the  subscriber  makes  no 
hesitation  in  asking  such  papers  to  spread  before  their  readers  a  petition 
of  the  general  form  and  sentiment: 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


117 


To  T^E  Congress  of  the  United  States:  Believing  that  the  men  and 
women  who  were  held  in  slavery  prior  to  the  war  of  the  rebellion  are 
entitled  to  just  recompense  for  their  j^ears  of  involuntary  servitude,  the 
subscribers  appeal  to  the  congress  of  the  United  States  for  the  passage  of 
"Vaughan's  Freedmen's  Pension  Bill,"  introduced  in  congress  June  24, 
1890,  by  the  Hon.  W.  J.  Connell,  of  Nebraska.  The  measure  we  conceive 
to  be  right  in  spirit,  and  it  bears  the  evidence  of  true  economy  in  its 
preparation.  It  recognizes  the  right  of  the  claim  of  freedmen  for  aid, 
but  it  leaves  them  in  a  condition  requiring  industry  in  order  that  they 
may  procure  a  comfortable  and  permanent  maintenance.  Therefore  the 
subscribers  beg  leave  to  appeal  to  the  humanity  of  congress  in  session  in 
favor  of  the  passage  of  the  Vaughan  Freedmen's  Pension  Bill. 

Your  petitioners  will  ever  pray : 


NAME 


RESn)ENCE 


o  o 


0)  bJD 

3  § 


Petitions  similar  to  the  above  and  other  communications  may  be 
addressed  to  W.  R.  Vaughan,  either  at  Omaha,  Neb.,  or  Washington,  D.  C, 
as  he  proposes  to  open  an  office  in  the  latter  city  at  an  early  day,  and  all 
communications  addressed  to  Omaha  will  be  forwarded  there.  Cutout  the 
above  petition  and  attach  it  to  a  sheet  of  legal  cap  paper,  or  re-write  the 
substance  of  it  if  deemed  best.  The  work  taken  in  hand  will  be  pursued 
to  success  or  until  death  shall  prevent  further  effort. 

Will  the  representative  press  of  the  colored  race  and  other  newspapers 
friendly  to  a  great  cause  kindly  publish  this  circular  as  a  matter  of  news 
and  in  justice  to  an  oppressed  people?  It  is  believed  that  appropriate 
petitions,  once  fairly  circulated,  will  be  very  largely  signed.  Address, 

W.  R.  Vaughan,  Omaha,  Neb., 
Or  Washington,  D.  C. 


118 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


AFRICA. 

Concluding  an  appeal  to  the  Congress,  the  States  and  the 
People,  in  behalf  of  the  late  subjects  of  slavery  within  the  United 
States,  it  is  just  and  fair  to  the  subjects  of  a  once  enslaved  race, 
to  say  to  the  readers  of  this  volume,  that  it  is  a  popular  error 
which  writes  down  the  sons  and  daughters  of  Africa  as  barbarians 
from  the  beginning  of  time.  They  were  not  such,  or  all  history 
is  false  in  what  it  records  of  the  human  race.  Speculation  as  to 
the  correctness  of  the  biblical  version  of  the  confusion  of  tongues 
and  the  separation  of  races,  in  the  earliest  ages  of  which  we  have 
any  published  account,  would  be  vain.  That  the  black  race 
inhabited  the  continent  of  Africa  is  a  point  beyond  dispute,  but 
that  they  have  always  been  ignorant,  barbarous  and  brutal,  is  not 
sustained  by  any  competent  authority  now  extant.  On  the  other 
hand  the  region  of  country  lying  north  of  the  Great  Desert  is  one 
of  remote  historical  account,  and  it  has  been  the  seat  of  learning, 
science  and  vast  mechanical  skill.  Egj^pt,  and  the  country  con- 
tiguous to  the  mouth  of  the  Nile ,  has  a  history  as  old  as  civiliza- . 
tion.  But  far  back  of  any  authenticated  narrative  of  the  present 
age,  that  country  was  peopled  b}^  a  race  of  men  cultured  in  the 
arts,  sciences  and  useful  mechanics,  which  are  the  rich  heritages 
of  a  great,  a  powerful  and  a  noble  people.  In  the  patriarchal 
ages  Egypt  was  aland  of  corn  and  wine.  When  Western  Asia 
was  the  seat  of  empire,  where  Abraham  built  the  altar  upon  which 
to  make  a  sacrifice  of  his  son ;  where  Jacob  saw  the  ladder  upon 
which  angels  were  seen  descending  from  heaven  to  earth,  and 
returning  to  the  regions  of  bliss  again;  where  the  brethren  of 
Joseph  sold  him  into  captivity  and  sent  him  as  a  slave  into  Egypt, 
and  by  chance  into  the  palace  of  the  Pharaohs;  from  whence  the 
sons  of  Jacob  journeyed  to  Egypt  for  bread,  when  Palestine  was 
famishiag  with  hunger,  and  there  found  the  brother  of  the  striped 
coat,  installed  in  the  palace  of  the  king;  in  that  ancient  day 
Egypt  was  the  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey,  while  the 
balance  of  the  known  world  was  a  barren  desert,  where  Gaunt 
Hunger  was  the  monarch  of  all  he  surveyed. 

Within  the  reign  of  the  Pharaohs,  or  following  their  control  of 
empire,  the  Pyramids  were  built,  and  hecatombs  were  constructed, 
which  have  been  the  wonder  of  the  world.  Before  the  reign  of 
the  Csesars  began  at  Rome,  the  seat  of  civilization  was  in  upper 
Africa.  There  temples  were  built,  monuments  were  raised,  and 
wonders  performed  which  have  excited  the  admiration  of  the 


YAUGrHAX's   PLEA  FOR   THE   OLD  .^LAVES 


119 


world  during  subsequent  time.  Who  built  the  pyramids  ?  What 
knowledge  of  mechanics  did  they  possess  by  means  of  vrhich  solid 
stones,  of  the  dimensions  of  40.960  cubic  feet,  weighing  4.587.520 
pounds,  or  nearly  2.300  tons,  were  elevated  an  hundred  feet  above 
the  surface  of  the  earth,  and  placed  in  a  solid  wall?  Great  men 
did  this  thing:  and  if  we  may  believe  the  instruction  of  clearly 
convincing  circumstances  these  men  were  Negroes  I 

AVhatever  may  have  been  the  blood  of  Cleopatra,  whose  arts 
led  captive  Mark  Antony  and  defied  the  authority  of  the  C  tesars. 
it  cannot  be  Cjuestioned  that  she  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  the 
ancient  Afric  princes  of  Egypt.  Although  the  black  races  of 
Northern  Africa  were  driven  across  the  desert  and  despoiled  of 
their  possessions,  so  did  the  power  of  the  white  race  decline  in 
Southern  Europe,  and  the  whole  world  was  involved  in  darkness 
for  many  generations.  It  is  not  true  that  the  Moors  and  other 
southern  races  of  Europe  were  the  progenitors  of  civilization  in 
Egypt  and  the  Barbary  States.  On  the  contrary,  the  Moors  sprang 
from  the  expelled  African  races,  driven  out  by  internal  dissentions 
of  which  there  can  be  found  no  adeciuate  account.  The  barbarism 
of  the  negro  rost  from  civil  strife,  fomented  and  encouraged  by 
the  grasping  avarice  of  foreign  powers. 

As  a  grand  division  of  the  globe.  Africa  is  the  second  in  point 
of  size,  only  being  exceeded  by  Asia.  It  is  known  to  current  his- 
tory, and  will  be  for  perhaps  more  than  a  century  to  come,  as  -  "the 
dark  continent'"  and  the  land  of  mystery.  During  the  nineteenth 
century  a  good  deal  has  been  done  to  open  it  up  to  us  by  the  enter- 
prise of  explorers,  the  zeal  of  missionaries,  the  perseverance  of 
commercial  specitlation  and  the  military  aggressions  of  dominant 
European  powers.  England.  France  and  Germany  are  contending 
for  the  mastery,  and  the  success  of  either  of  them  means  the  grad- 
ual extirpation  of  the  savage  African  nations  which  have  been 
driven  from  their  ancient  seats  of  empire  to  become  the  tribal  occu- 
pants of  more  sotithern  regions  and  sea  coast  settlements  south  of 
Sahara.  Erom  the  ranks  of  those  refugees,  a^  they  became  in- 
volved in  turmoil,  one  community  against  another,  the  pirates 
from  Europe  have  peopled  the  states  of  Xorth  and  South  America 
with  slaves. 

Even  after  the  explorations  of  such  learned  priigrims  in  the 
catise  of  discovery  as  Mungo  Park.  David  Livingstone  and  Henry 
M.  .Stanley.  Africa  is  comparatively  an  unknown  region;  but  the 
more  it  is  explored  the  more  convincing  becomes  the  settled  con- 
clusion that  its  native  population  has  grown  up  from  scattered 


120 


vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 


fragments  of  colonies  driven  out  of  the  northern  region  by  the 
dread  circumstance  of  war.  The  extent  of  its  population  is  un- 
known. Some-  travelers  and  writers  have  estimated  the  native  in- 
habitants to  be  as  low  as  twenty-five  millions  of  people,  while 
others  have  stated  one  hundred  millions  to  be  too  low  a  figure.  All 
agree,  however,  that  the  progress  of  degradation  has  gradually 
gone  forward  since  the  dajs  when  the  ancient  population  was  driven 
away  from  home  and  possessions  to  become  a  race  of  wanderers 
upon  the  earth..  In  their  first  settlement,  even  in  the  wilder- 
ness, some  of  the  pioneers  carried  with  them  a  knowledge  of 
mechanic  arts  and  processes  which  have  gradually  been  lost  as  the 
cloud  of  ignorance  and  superstition  settled  over  the  people .  They 
built  cities,  the  ruins  of  which  have  been  found.  They  had  great 
and  elaborate  works  of  art,  and  were  successful  as  agriculturalists. 
There  are  yet  to  be  found  evidences  of  ancient  religious  training, 
showing  that  the  races  sprang  from  a  parentage  which  believed  in 
One  Source  and  Supremacy  of  Eternal  Power.  But,  as  contact 
with  the  world  was  forgotten,  barbarism  became  the  rule;  and  in 
place  of  an  abode  of  learning  and  useful  arts  "the  dark  conti- 
nent" has  supplied  the  world  with  the  most  lamentable  examples 
of  human  misery  and  the  most  hideous  instances  of  crime.  As  a 
strong  community  prayed  upon  a  weak,  and  men  and  women  were 
constantly  made  captives  in  war,  even  the  savage  heart  became 
sated  with  rapine  and  butchery;  and  their  reduction  of  captives  to 
a  condition  of  slavery  followed  just  as  naturally  as  the  darkness  of 
night  follows  the  light  of  day . 

The  spoliation  of  ordinary  robbers  and  buccaneers  did  not 
complete  the  work  of  African  subjugation,  the  extension  of 
primal  slave-making  having  been  the  work  of  Christian  nations, 
which  carried  the  captives  of  robber  chieftains  into  foreign  lands. 
There  the  captive  of  the  savage  became  the  slave  of  the  bible 
reading  people,  who  daily  blessed  God  because  the  creatures  of 
bondage  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  pious  people  able  to  learn 
them  the  straight  and  narrow  path  that  leads  to  the  throne  of 
heaven! 

It  has  been  truly  remarked  of  Africa  that  the  dark  continent 
presents  the  singular  anomoly  of  having  been  the  home  of  ancient 
civilization,  and  the  prey  of  the  modern  rapacity  and  plunder  of 
all  nations.  It  is  natural,  therefore,  that  in  regard  to  the  plun- 
dered portions  of  this  vast  area  the  world  should  be  comparatively 
uninformed,  even  after  the  explorations  of  the  last  half  centur}^, 
which  have  given  a  wider  knowledge  of  its  physical  geography 


VAUGHAX  S   PLEA   FOE   THE   OLD  SLAVES. 


121 


and  of  the  character  of  its  savage  iuhabitancy  than  had  hitherto 
been  possessed. 

As  long  ago  as  the  fifteenth  centnry  explorers  from  Portugal 
made  tours  of  examination  and  discovery  along  the  east  and  west 
coasts  of  Africa.  In  that  day  Portugal  was  perhaps  the  first  mar- 
ilime  power  in  Europe.  The  crown  gave  kingly  encouragement  to 
tours  of  discovery .  These  were  prosecuted  not  onl}^  along  the  shores 
of  Africa,  in  the  eastern  hemisphere,  but  extensively  in  the  western 
hemisphere,  with  respect  to  North  and  South  America  and  the 
^Vest  India  isL^nds.  following  the  first  discoveries  of  Columbus. 
This  spirit  of  adA^enture  gave  to  Portuguese  merchants  the  advan- 
tage of  learning  the  source  of  supplying  vessels  with  slaves  in 
Africa,  and  also  of  knowing  a  read}^  and  valuable  market  in  the 
new  world.  But  while  engaged  in  their  explorations  the  Portu- 
guese made  valuable  discoveries,  which  are  of  consequence  in 
showing  that  many  of  the  African  tribes  had  maintained  a  fair 
order  of  ciA'ilization  in  spite  of  their  forcible  expulsion  from  their 
ancient  realm  into  the  savagery  of  the  wilds  lying  south  of  the 
ec[uator,  Yasco  de  Gama  made  a  voyage  as  earl}^  as  1497  which 
resulted  in  the  discover}^  of  Xatal,  Mozambiciue  and  a  number  of 
small  islands  off  the  coast  of  Africa,  and  in  them  he  found  a  peo- 
ple which  enjoyed  a  high  state  of  commercial  advancement  and 
ver}'  many  of  the  evidences  of  civilization  which  had  come  to  them 
from  the  reign  of  Cleopatra  and  the  time  wherein  the  Caesars  ruled 
Egypt.  AY ith  their  banishment  they  had  not  degenerated  into  a 
savage  state,  but  had  maintained  a  fair  degree  of  the  eminent  con- 
dition which  pervaded  Northern  Africa  in  the  palm}'  daj's  of  the 
splendor  and  refinement  of  their  forefathers.  True,  they  had 
fallen  under  the  influence  of  the  missionaries  of  Mohammed  and 
adopted  the  faith  of  the  prophet  of  Allah.  But  this  fact  is  not 
surprising  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  birthplace  of  Jesus 
Christ  has  become  abject  in  its  acknowledgment  of  Mohammedan 
rule,  while  Jerusalem,  the  city  of  the  Great  King,  has  a  Mosque 
on  the  sacred  spot  where  the  Savior  once  expelled  harpies  and 
traders  from  the  temple,  declaring  to  them  that  the}^  had  made  the 
Father's  house  a  den  of  thieves.  All  over  the  land  where  the 
Man  of  Sorrows  pursued  his  earthly  ministry,  and  wrought  his 
miracles,  the  prevailing  religion  to-daj^  is  that  of  Mohammed. 
Xo  wonder,  then,  that  the  followers  of  the  Prophet  had  extended 
their  proselytism  to  the  islands  lying  along  the  African  coast, 
prior  to  the  time  when  Vasco  de  Gama  came  among  them  with 
vessels  from  Portugal  having  the  wings  of  the  sea. 


,  122  vaughan's  plea  for  the  old  slaves. 

De  Gama  found,  in  the  islands  which  he  visited,  a  population 
enjoying  all  the  elegant  advantages  of  well-built  cities,  ports, 
mosques  for  the  worship  of  Allah  according  to  the  teachings  of 
the  Moslem  faith,  and  carrying  on  a  valuable  trade  with  India  and 
the  Spice  Islands  by  means  of  rude  boats  propelled  partly  with 
oars  and  partly  with  sails  of  native  manufacture.  Vessels  from 
Portugal  regularly  visited  this  region  for  a  long  series  of  years 
after  the  discovery  of  De  Gama,  and  Portuguese  merchants  secured 
an  *  affluent  trade.  In  the  meantime  the  news  of  the  discovery 
went  abroad,  and  other  European  powers  established  colonies  at 
different  places  on  the  African  coast;  so  that  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury a  general  examination  of  the  coast  line  of  Africa  was  made 
from  the  mouth  of  the  River  Senegal,  on  the  west  coast,  to  the 
entrance  into  the  Gulf  of  Aden  on  the  east  coast,  being  the  south 
entrance  into  the  waters  of  the  Red  Sea. 

Notwithstanding  these  advances  in  matters  of  African  explora- 
tion nearly  two  hundred  years  passed  away  before  enterprising 
efforts  were  made  to  penetrate  the  interior  of  the  continent.  All 
that  had  been  done  amounted  to  a  geographical  and  mercantile 
exploration  of  the  coast  line  and  the  establishment  of  a  few  com- 
mercial settlements.  The  English  government  effected  a  settlement 
at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  with  characteristic  enterprise 
occupied  the  territory  immediately  tributary  to  their  colony. 
From  this  base  of  operations  that  government  has  spread  out  its 
work  of  aggrandizement  until  it  now  controls  the  bulk  of  the 
African  trade.  But  in  all  that  the  agents  of  the  British  nation- 
ality have  discovered,  there  has  been  no  fact  brought  to  light 
which  will  gainsay  the  theory  that  the  Negro  races  of  Africa,  how- 
ever barbarized  or  unlettered,  have  not  been  the  descendants 
of  a  civilized  condition  of  society  at  some  remote  era.  Those 
tribes  which  have  been  most  oppressed,  and  made  the  subjects  of 
incursions  by  more  powerful  bands,  in  the  interests  of  slave 
traders,  have  sunk  deepest  into  degradation.  It  is  those  which 
have  been  able  to  maintain  a  well  regulated  system  of  defense, 
and  to  keep  at  bay  predatory  incursionists ,  that  present  to 
strangers  who  have  visited  them  the  evidences  of  natural  superi- 
ority and  the  unmistakable  indications  of  having  known  a 
better  day. 

It  was  not  until  1795  that  Mungo  Park,  an  adventursome 
Scotch  explorer,  who  had  conceived  the  idea  of  breaking  the  shell 
of  outer  Africa,  and  penetrating  the  interior,  with  a  view  of 
learning  what  might  be  found  there,  proceeded  to  put  his  enter- 


VAUGHAN  S   PLEA  FOR  THE   OLD  SLAVES. 


123 


prise  into  operation.  After  two  3"ears  of  hardship  and  privation 
he  returned  to  G-reat  Britain  and  published  a  volume  recounting 
his  discoveries  and  hair-breadth  escapes,  which,  for  a  time,  were 
the  marvels  of  the  world,  surpassing  the  captivating  stories  of 
fiction.  His  narrative  was  reduced  to  entertaining  simplicity, 
published  partially  in  school  books,  and  in  small  volumes  for  the 
attraction  ®f  j^outh.  But  the  point  with  which  we  mainly  have 
to  deal  is  the  fact  that  he  found  the  Mohammedan  religion  prevail- 
ing along  the  banks  of  the  ^viger,  carrying  out  the  idea  that  ev§n 
the  barbarous  tribes  furnished  evidence  of  having  descended  from 
a  higher  plane  of  life .  Mungo  Park  made  a  second  voyage  to 
Africa  in  1805,  and  lost  his  life  b}'  drowning  on  the  upper  waters 
of  the  Niger,  where  he  was  ambushed  b}^  natives  in  a  narrow  pass, 
and  sought  to  escape  b}-  swimming  to  the  opposite  shore. 

The  observations  of  Mungo  Park  and  the  discoveries  made  by 
him  whetted  the  desire  for  further  information.  Denham  and 
Clapperton,  English  merchants,  in  1822,  fitted  out  a  caravan  from 
Tripoli,  on  the  Mediterranean  sea,  from  whence  the  expedition 
crossed  the  G-reat  Desert  and  reached  Lake  Tchad,  on  the  line 
dividing  the  districts  of  Kanem  and  Bornu,  in  interior  Africa, 
from  which  point  an  extensive  exploration  of  contiguous  territor}^ 
was  made.  This  expedition  confirmed  manj^  of  the  theories  of 
Mungo  Park  in  the  conclusion  that  South  Africa  had  once  been  a 
seat  of  great  enterprise,  accompanied  with  a  fair  degree  of 
civilization . 

"\Vith  the  later  discoveries  of  Dr.  David  Livingstone,  and,  fol- 
lowing him,  of  the  intrepid  American  adventurer,  Henr}^  M. 
Stanle}',  the  reading  people  of  the  whole  world  are  fully  familiar. 
AVhile  the  people  of  almost  every  land  on  the  globe  are  perusing 
the  last  narrative  of  Stanley,  it  is  unnecessar}'  to  repeat  the  con- 
ditions which  he  has  found  to  exist.  He  has  imparted  sufficient 
information  for  cultured  men  to  arrive  at  the  just  conclusion  that 
Africa  has  not  always  been  the  dark  continent  as  it  now  appears  to 
us,  but  that  it  has  been  the  theater  of  great  exploits  in  the  past 
ages,  the  record  of  which  has  been  lost  to  mankind. 

This  line  of  thought  and  deduction  has  been  pursued  by  the 
writer  with  a  view  of  convincing  men  of  the  white  race,  Avho  ma}^ 
take  time  to  peruse  this  volume,  that  the  negro  race  is  capable  of 
the  highest  degree  of  civilization,  and  that  the  dusky  people  of 
African  extraction  can  maintain  a  place  with  honor  along  side  of 
the  most  famous  nations  of  the  globe .  All  that  is  required  to  prove 
the  force  and  truth  of  such  a  theory  is  to  give  the  negro  a  fair 


124  VAUGHAN*S   PLEA  FOR  THE   OLD  SLAVES. 

start  in  life  as  a  newly  made  freeman ;  and  in  no  way  can  this  work 
be  more  speedily  and  satisfactorily  accomplished  than  by  giving 
an  adequate  compensation  to  those  of  the  race  who  have  been  un- 
justly held  in  vassalage  from  their  youth  up.  While  righting  a 
wrong  the  men  and  women  who  have  suffered  wrong  will  be 
started  upon  a  new  existence.  They  will  hold  up  their  heads  in 
pride,  because  the  country  they  love  and  have  served,  both  in 
bondage  and  as  freemen,  has  had  the  courage  to  do  them  justice. 

It  would  be  manifestly  unjust  to  the  negro  people  of  America 
for  this  discussion  of  what  Africa  has  been  in  the  past ,  to  be  closed 
without  calling  attention  to  a  criticism  which  has  been  often  in- 
dulged, even  by  men  holding  high  places  in  the  government. 

The  objection  has  been  raised  against  the  Negro,  as  a  distinctive 
feature  of  the  human  race,  that  his  subjugation  and  reduction  to  a 
condition  of  slavery  constituted  an  unanswerable  argument  against 
his  capacity  of  maintaining  a  high  standard  of.  excellence  after 
having  arrived  at  such  an  eminence.  Surely  this  view  has  not 
been  well  taken,  and  facts  certainly  will  not  support  it.  Because 
Africa  has  been  the  seat  of  learning  and  empire,  and  has  been  peo- 
pled by  a  race  who  builded  cities  and  towns  and  monuments  of 
great]iess,  and,  after  the  lapse  of  ages,  her  population  became  dis- 
persed, her  knowledge  of  learning  destroyed  and  the  genius  of  her 
great  inventors  brought  to  nought,  it  cannot  be  said  that  other 
people  of  various  races  have  not  suffered  the  same  degradation 
and  humiliation.  The  researches  which  have  been  made  upon 
American  soil  teaches  the  unmistakable  lesson  that  in  this  land 
there  once  existed  a  nation,  or  nations,  taught  in  the  highest  de- 
gree of  scholastic  information .  The  buried  cities  which  have  been 
brought  to  light  tell  the  story  of  lost  greatness  in  terms  that  can- 
not be  misunderstood. 

Beginning  with  the  researches  of  John  L.  Stephens  in  Central 
America,  and  adding  to  the  information  which  he  imparted  to  the 
world  the  subsequent  discoveries  of  other  explorers,  we  must  ad- 
mit that  the  North  American  continent  was  peopled,  in  a  for- 
gotten past,  by  races  of  men  who  were  skilled  in  all  the  arts  and 
sciences  requisite  to  make  enlightened  nations.  They  builded 
cities,  raised  temples  and  monuments  and  conducted  a  thriving 
commerce,  of  which  convincing  traces  have  been  found. 

Who  were  these  people  ?  Whence  did  they  come  ?  How  were 
they  overthrown  ?  Was  it  by  the  arms  and  prowess  of  conquerors, 
or  by  some  terrible  commotion  of  nature  ?  If  the  former ,  what  be- 
came of  the  conquerors  ?    If  the  latter ,  may  it  not  be  equally  true 


YAUGHAX'S   PLEA  FOR   THE   OLD  SLAVES. 


125 


that  the  learning,  the  greatness  and  the  productive  T^'ealth  of 
ancient  African  nations  fell  before  the  hurricane,  the  whirlwind  or 
the  earthquake  of  nature,  just  as  American  cities  were  buried  and 
wiped  out  of  existence  ? 

When  Christopher  Columbus  discovered  the  western  hemis- 
phere, he  found  here  tribes  of  savages  of  a  lineage  before  unknown 
to  the  world.  As  subsequent  discoveries  were  made  in  new 
quarters  there  continued  to  be  found  tribes  differing  in  some 
features,  but  preserving  the  general  outlines  of  one  people. 
Whether  these  tribes  descended  from  an  ancient  population 
which  dwelt  in  cities  and  pursued  avocations  of  civilized  life, 
cannot  be  known.  All  is  a  matter  of  conjecture  and  speculation. 
But  the  fact  remains  that  the  work  of  destruction  once  swept 
over  the  land  wherein  we  live,  just  as  it  did  over  the  con- 
tinent of  Africa.  Whether  the  besom  of  destruction  was 
simultaneous  in  both  hemispheres,  or  whether  countless  ages  inter- 
vened between  the  visitation  of  wrath  in  the  two  lands,  is  a  prob- 
lem which  may  never  be  solved.  But  the  conclusion  is  irresistible 
that  the  negro  race  is  no  more  accountable  for  the  destruction 
which  visited  Africa,  than  that  the  races  found  on  American  soil 
can  be  held  responsible  for  the  overturning  of  the  empire  which 
once  flourished  here. 

In  her  d^y  Bab^don  was  a  great  cit^-,  the  home  of  prophets 
and  patriarchs,  the  seat  of  learning,  luxurj^  and  fabulous  wealth. 
Her  rulers  were  the  most  powerful  men  of  earth.  The  glory  of 
the  great  city  was  the  wonder  of  the  world,  and  her  splendor 
appeared  likel}"  to  endure  forever.  That  city  fell,  and  the  site 
where  it  existed  is  the  abode  of  the  howling  lij^ena  and  other 
savage  beasts  of  the  forest.  The  Xegroes  who  dwelt  in  the 
buried  cities  of  Africa  should  not  be  regarded  as  careless  defenders 
of  their  pristine  glory  an}'  more  than  that  the  Asiatic  natives 
should  be  gibetted  for  having  suffered  Babjdon  to  fall. 

The  duty  uf  the  men  of  the  present  da}'  is  to  discard  all  cavil, 
and  to  face  manfull}'  the  stubborn  fact  that  the  government  of  the 
United  States  did,  for  three-quarters  of  a  centur}',  suffer  a  gigantic 
wrong  to  be  perpetrated  upon  an  enslaved  race..  The  stigma  of 
that  wrong  will  endure  forever,  unless  the  government  shall 
recompense  the  survivors  of  the  race  who  patiently  endured  such 
a  flagrant  act  of  injustice.  The  performance  of  an  act  of  justice 
owing  to  the  ex-slaves  of  the  United  States,  will  redound  to  the 
honor  of  a  great  nation  and  will  receive  the  admiration  and 
encomium  of  all  the  generous  and  noble  people  of  the  world. 


ADDENDA. 


Since  the  foregoing  pages  were  written  and  thrown  out  for  the 
candid  consideration  of  reading  and  thinking  persons  of  every 
class,  race,  and  sex,  the  author  has  visited  several  States  and  has 
discussed  his  views  in  public  meetings,  composed  of  ladies  and 
gentlemen  of  both  white  and  black  color — of  the  Caucasian  race 
as  well  as  of  Ethiopian  lineage.  Wherever  the  subject  of  a  pen- 
sion to  a  class  of  citizens  who  have  been  kept  for  ages  in  bondage 
against  their  will,  and  in  defiance  of  human  right,  has  been  can- 
didly discussed,  the  justice  of  the  proposition  advocated  in  these 
pages  has  been  freely  admitted,  and  the  objections  advanced  ;  when- 
ever any  have  been  seriously  raised  or  merely  suggested,  have  inva- 
riably been  directed  in  a  single  channel, — the  vast  expense  attend- 
ant upon  the  extension  of  the  pension  rolls  so  as  to  include  the 
millions  of  people  who  were  held  aforetime  in  the  bonds  of  servi- 
tude. This  objection,  which  is  the  material  cause  of  opposition 
from  all  sources,  partakes  of  the  same  nature  as  the  logic  so  often 
indulged  in  former  years  by  philanthropically  inclmed  slave- 
holders when  they  assigned  reasons  for  not  emancipating  their  own 
slaves.  Since  the  era  of  the  formation  of  this  republic,  as  well  as 
in  colonial  days,  and  in  the  years  antedating  that  period,  there  has 
existed  a  fair  percentage  of  the  slave-holding  classes  which  hoartily 
anathematized  the  existence  of  the  institution  of  human  slavery, 
and  which  would  have  yielded  readily  to  an  edict  of  emancipation 
that  would  not  have  entailed  a  burden,  seeming  to  be  intolerable, 
upon  themselves.  When  the  condition  of  a  great  civil  war  spread 
its  pall  athwart  the  land  the  way  was  opened  for  the  setting  of  an 
oppressed  race  free,  regardless  of  the  master^s  will.  But  as  has 
been  fully  shown  in  the  preceding  pages  the  thunder-stroke  of 
freedom,  when  it  descended  upon  the  land,  shattering  in  frag- 
ments all  preconceived  ideas  and  conditions,  in  no  wise  provided 
compensation,  even  in  a  remote  degree,  for  the  unwilling  subjects 
of  years  of  unrequited  toil  and  inhuman  bondage.  The  Govern- 
ment, at  the  will  and  behest  of  its  temporary  administrators,  turned 
adrift  from  homes  of  comfort  and  abundance  for  the  wants  of  the 
physical  man  millions  of  human  beings  whose  toil  and  labor  had 
enriched  the  nation  as  well  as  the  masters  of  the  emancipated  serfs. 
The  requiting  of  the  wrong  so  long  perpetrated  and  so  suddenly 
destroyed,  entailing  misery  in  thousands  of  instances  instead  of 
direct  benefits,  becomes  a  solemn  duty  of  the  Government;  and  that 
it  will  occasion  a  heavy  draft  upon  the  public  treasury  and  upon 
the  tax-payers  of  the  land  ought  not  to  be  considered  for  a  single 
moment.  The  questions  immediately  presented  are  these:  Is  the 
proposed  remedy  an  act  of  justice?  Is  it  the  right  of  the  ex-slaves 
that  they  have  compensation  for  wronsfs  endured?    Can  a  great 

126 


ADDEXDA. 


127 


and  beneficent  government  deliberately  sanction  a  cruelty  and  a 
wrong  without  making  reasonable  indemnity  for  the  wrong 
alSictedP 

If  these  questions  may  be  affirmatively  answered — and  reason 
and  justice  alike  dictate  that  they  shall  be — then  it  becomes  appar- 
ent to  every  candid  man  that  the  question  of  expense  must  not  be 
permitted  to  enter  into  a  discussion  of  the  duty  which  the  Govern- 
ment owes  to  its  emancipated  millions  of  former  slaves.  They 
were  held  as  slaves  pursuant  to  the  will  of  the  Government  law- 
fully expressed.  At  the  Governmental  will  the  shackels  of  slaverv 
were  removed.  Xow  let  the  Government  do  right  by  the  subjects 
of  its  monstrous  error,  regardless  of  the  question  of  expense  oj-  of 
the  taxes  that  must  be  entailed  upon  the  people. 

In  all  the  discussion  through  the  columns  of  the  daily  press  and 
in  the  pages  of  magazine  literature  respecting  the  settlement  of 
the  negro  problem,  there  appears  to  have  been  a  studious  effort 
by  writers  to  thrust  aside  the  matter  of  making  reparation  to 
the  negroes  themselves  for  the  injustice  they  have  suffered  dur- 
ing their  years  of  unrequited  servitude.  Senators  and  Represen- 
tatives of  Congress,  clergymen  from  the  pulpit  and  scholais  from 
college  halls  have  rushed  into  print  to  solve  the  negro  problem; 
and  after  all  the  learned  essays  they  have  written  and  the  sapient 
methods  they  have  devised  for  the  elucidation  of  a  question  of  vast 
magnitude,  the  problem  appears  to  lack  solution  in  the  same 
degree  that  the  first  learned  writer  found  it  unsolved  when  he 
undertook  the  task  of  solving  it. 

Xearly  all  the  negro  problem  discussionists  have  held  forth 
the  idea  that  the  want  of  the  old  slaves  is  the  establishment  of 
schools,  colleges,  churches  and  the  like  for  the  education  of  the 
young  generation  of  negroes  and  for  the  moral  culture  of  the 
black  people,  young  and  old  alike.  The  physical  comfort  and 
temporal  welfare  of  the  negro  race  does  not  appear  to  have 
engaged  the  attention  of  a  single  one  of  the  many  distinguished 
statesmen,  philosophers  and  scholars  \vho  have  undertaken  the 
solution  of  the  negro  problem,  concerning  which  they  have  been 
so  terribly  exorcised. 

Writing  from  the  House  of  Kepresentatives  at  Washington, 
under  date  of  January  31,  1S91,  concerning  Vaughan^s  Freedmen^s 
Pension  Bill,  the  Hon.  W.  J.  Connell,  representative  from  the 
first  Xebraska  district,  who  introduced  that  measure  at  the  ear- 
nest request  of  its  author,  has  this  to  say: 

Hox.  W.  R.  Vaughax:  Dear  Sir — The  package  of  your 
Plea  for  American  Freed  men  ^'  was  duly  received  and  distrib- 
uted as  you  directed.  In  addition  to  furnishing  the  Committee 
on  Pensions  with  the  desired  number  of  copies,  I  also  gave  a  copy 
to  each  of  the  three  colored  representatives  now  in  the  House.  1 
have  since  had  some  talk  with  one  or  two  of  them  regarding  your 
bill.  It  seems  to  be  their  opinion  that  some  different  measure  for 
the  benefit  of  ex-slaves  could  be  passed,  which  would  be  more 
acceptable  to  them  and  the  colored  race.  As  Mr.  Langston  put 
it:  '''What  we  want  is  the  means  of  obtaining  knowledge  and 
useful  information  which  will  fit  the  rising  generation  for  honor- 


128 


ADDENDAe 


able  and  useful  employment."  I  doubt  if  there  will  be  any  defi- 
nite action  on  the  bill  at  this  session  of  Congress.  Erom  what  I 
can  learn  the  committee  is  not  inclined  to  make  a  favorable 
report.    I  suppose  this  was  somewhat  anticipated. 

Very  truly  yours, 

W.  J.  COKi^ELL. 

So,  according  to  the  foregoing  letter,  even  so  eminent  a  colored 
statesman  as  the  Hon.  John  M.  Langston,  to  whom  a  small  part 
of  this  little  volume  has  been  devoted,  appears  to  fall  into  the 
groove  af  thinking  that  the  negroes  who  suffered  the  martyrdom 
of  slavery,  and  the  pangs  of  hunger  and  nakedness  consequent 
upon  sudden  and  unexpected  emancipation,  may  be  compensated 
for  the  woes  of  generations  of  serfdom  by  making  provision  for 
knowledge  and  useful  information to  be  imparted  to  the  '^ris- 
ing generation! "  In  the  name  of  all  that  is  holy  it  may  be  asked 
whetlier  the  rising  generation  "  has  not  been  suitably  provided 
for,  at  least  until  such  time  as  the  hoary-headed  men  and  women 
who  endured  the  heat  and  burden  of  lifetimes  of  abject  toil  have 
been  in  bome  measure  compensated  for  the  sweat  and  suffering 
they  endured  before  the  chains  of  slavery  slipped  from  their  limbs 
under  the  booming  of  artillery,  the  tramp  of  cavalry,  the  rattle  of 
the  arms  of  infantry  and  all  the  bitter  circumstances  of  four  years 
of  blood-red  war? 

It  can  not  be  certainly  claimed  that  there  has  been  any  lack  of 
effort,  either  North  or  South,  since  the  close  of  the  rebellion  and 
the  era  of  reconstruction  to  provide  full  means  of  general  knowl- 
edge and  useful  information"  for  the  rising  generation  "  which 
has  been  begotten  of  ex-slave  parentage.  Even  so  able  a  writer  in 
the  interest  of  the  negro  as  George  W.  Cable,  who  seems  to  have 
imbibed  the  Langstonian  idea  in  a  measure,  that  knowledge  and 
useful  information"  is  a  suitable  panacea  for  all  the  ills  of  which 
the  black  race  can  complain,  has  admitted  in  his  treatise  published 
in  the  Forum  of  August,  1888,  that  ample  educational  provision 
has  been  made  for  the  colored  people  since  they  have  been  set  free 
from  chattel  servitude.  In  his  able  pen  production  Mr.  Cable  has 
this  to  say: 

The  freedom  of  the  negro  was  bought  at  a  higher  price,  in 
white  men's  blood  and  treasure,  than  any  people  ever  paid,  of 
their  own  blood  and  treasure,  for  their  own  liberty.  Since  the 
close  of  the  war  many  millions  of  dollars  have  been  spent  by  pri- 
vate benevolence  in  the  North  to  qualify  the  Southern  negro, 
morally  and  intellectually,  for  his  new  freedom,  and  the  outlay 
continues  still  undiminished.  No  equal  number  of  people  else- 
where on  earth  receives  so  great  an  amount  of  missionary  educa- 
tional aid.  In  the  South  itself  a  great  change  has  taken — is  tak- 
ing— place  in  popular  sentiment  concerning  certain  aspects  of  the 
negro's  case.  In  1885-86  over  58  per  cent,  of  the  colored  school 
population  in  seven  great  Southern  States  was  enrolled  in  State 
public  schools,  in  recognition  of  the  necessity  and  advantage  of 
the  negro's  elevation." 

The  census  reports  of  1890  show  that  the  statement  of  Mr. 
Cable  is  borne  out  and  even  exceeded  by  facts,  not  only  in  seven 


ADDENDA. 


States  but  in  every  State  of  the  South  where  slavery  existed  before 
the  war. 

An  exhaustive  examination  of  the  sentiments  of  nearly  all  edu- 
cational writers  who  have  interested  themselves  in  the  matter  of 
negro  schools  and  colleges  for  the  use  and  benefit  of  freedmen,  has 
led  to  the  conclusion  that  an  opinion  generally  prevails  among  edu- 
cators to  the  effect  that  complete  justice  has  been  done  to  the  ex-slave 
in  such  lines,  and  that  the  good  work  will  continue  in  coming  years. 
It  can  not  be,  then,  truly  claimed,  as  Congressman  Langston  has 
put  it,  that  the  acquirement  of  knowledge  and  useful  informa- 
tion^' on  the  part  of  the  ex-slaves  has  been  neglected  by  the  States 
or  by  the  people.  Neither  has  his  religious  training  been 
neglected.  Churches  have  grown  on  nearly  every  hill-side  and  in 
the  green  valleys  of  the  South,  where  the  black  children  of  old 
slave  fathers  and  mothers  go  side  by  side  with  their  gray-haired 
parents  to  hear  the  gospel  expounded  at  the  regular  call  of  the  Sab- 
bath bell.  Education  and  religion  have  been  held  out  to  the  freed- 
men with  a  lavish  hand. 

But  men  can  not  feed  upon  husks.    If,  as  the  Scriptures  teach, 

man  can  not  live  by  bread  alone,  but  by  every  word  that  proceed- 
eth  out  of  the  mouth  of  God/'  so  may  it  also  be  said  that  the 
'''word''  would  constitute  miserably  poor  aid  and  comfort  in  case 
the  bread  should  be  wholly  withdrawn.  While  education  and 
religion  are  sent  broadcast  over  the  South  for  the  benefit  of  the 

rising  generation,"  there  are  the  old  and  poor  who  delved  from 
early  morn  till  dewy  eve  in  the  da3^s  of  their  young  manhood  and 
Avomanhood,  and  who  now  stand  up  for  justice  and  say  to  the  law- 
givers, ^'  Compensate  us  for  the  ills  v/e  endured  in  the  days  when 
our  sweat  and  toil  went  to  make  up  the  fatness  of  the  master's 
table  !  The  Government  compelled  our  labor.  Now,  you  have 
acknowledged  its  injustice,  pay  us  at  least  a  stipend  of  that  which 
we  earned  for  others!" 

In  the  two  decades  which  have  elapsed  since  the  author  of  this 
volume  first  contemplated  an  appeal  to  the  people  for  a  national 
recognition  of  the  just  claims  of  ex-slaves  to  financial  indemnity 
because  of  past  wrongs  suffered,  and  in  the  eight  years  which  have 
passed  into  history  since  the  initiative  of  the  work  was  undertaken 
there  has  been  found  no  intelligent  citizen  who  has  undertaken  to 
combat  the  propriety  of  extending  to  the  negro  race  the  most 
liberal  aid  for  the  advancement  of  intellectual  and  educational 
progress  among  their  people.  But  outside  of  promoting  schools 
and  colleges,  and  the  erection  of  churches  wherever  there  appeared 
to  be  a  neighborhood  demand  for  the  preaching  of  the  gospel, 
public  interest  appears  to  have  measurably  ceased  except  in  polit- 
ical lines. 

The  politician  is  always  an  active  factor  in  securing  votes  for  his 
party,  and  hence  the  negro  has  not  been  neglected  in  the  extent  or 
earnestness  of  the  advice  that  has  been  given  him  respecting  the 
time  and  manner  of  enjoying  the  liberty  of  the  ballot.  Great 
concern  is  manifested  at  election  periods  as  to  where  he  shall  vote, 
how  he  shall  vote,  and  that  he  shall  be  sure  to  vote.  Generally  the 
anxiety  touching  these  points  has  much  less  to  do  with  the  weal 


130 


ADDENDA. 


that  is  to  attach  directly  to  the  negro,  in  consequence  of  benefits 
that  may  inure  to  him  because  of  the  success  of  one  political  party 
or  the  defeat  of  another,  than  it  has  for  the  particular  candidate 
for  office,  or  the  political  party  in  whose  interest  the  officious  par- 
tisan is  engaged  in  expending  his  laborious  efforts.  Still  it  is  the 
right  and  indeed  the  duty  of  all  citizens  to  vote,  regardless  of  color, 
and  to  vote  intelligently.  On  this  subject  right  thinking  men  of 
all  creeds  and  kinds  are  agreed ;  and  there  is,  perhaps,  less  of  au 
inclination  to  debar  the  negro  from  the  enjoyment  of  the  elective 
franchise  than  has  been  frequently  represented  upon  the  rostrum 
and  through  the  press.  It  is  probable  that  in  times  of  excitement 
in  certain  localities  obstacles  have  been  thrown  in  the  way  of  a  free 
ballot,  and  thereby  some  voters  of  color  have  been  prevented  from 
exercising  an  inestimable  right.  Occasionally  white  men  have 
suffered  a  similar  wrong.  But  in  the  main  elections  have  been 
free  and  open,  and  persons  lawfully  entitled  to  vote  have  been 
permitted  to  exercise  their  rights  without  fear  or  favor.  Those 
who  have  failed  to  exercise  the  elector's  privilege  have  done  so, 
in  most  instances,  through  their  own  inaction  and  negligence. 
On  this  subject,  Mr.  George  W.  Cable,  a  friend  of  the  negro,  in 
his  fine  magazine  article  already  referred  to,  has  given  some  most 
excellent  advice,  and  an  excerpt  therefrom  will  not  be  out  of  place. 
Mr.  Cable  says : 

''^Vote!  Cast  your  vote  though  taxed  for  it.  Cast  your  vote 
though  defrauded  of  it,  as  many  a  white  man  is  to-day.  Cast  your 
vote  though  you  die  for  it.  Let  no  man  cry,  'Liberty  or  blood ;^ 
leave  that  for  socialists  and  Parisian  mobs;  but  when  liberty  means 
duty,  and  death  means  one's  own  extinction,  then  the  cry  of  ^  lib- 
erty or  death '  is  a  holy  cry,  and  the  man  who  will  not  make  it  his 
own,  even  in  freedom,  is  not  free.  Seek  not  to  buy  liberty  with  the 
blood  neither  of  friends  nor  of  enemies;  it  is  only  men's  own  blood 
at  last  that  counts  in  the  purchase  of  liberty.  Whatever  may  have 
been  the  true  philosophy  for  more  ferocious  times,  this  is  the  true 
philosophy  for  ours.  Cast  your  votes,  then,  even  though  many  ol 
you  die  for  it.  Some  of  you  have  died,  but  in  comparison  how 
few;  three  hundred  thousand  white  men  poured  out  their  blood 
to  keep  you  bound,  other  three  hundred  thousand  died  to  set  you 
free,  and  still  the  measure  of  American  freedom  is  not  yours.  A 
fiftieth  as  much  of  your  own  blood  shed  in  the  inoffensive  activi- 
ties of  public  duty  will  buy  it.  Keep  your  vote  alive;  better  nine 
free  men  than  ten  half  free.  In  most  of  the  Southern  States  the 
negro  vote  has  been  diminishing  steadily  for  years,  to  the  profound 
satisfaction  of  those  white  men  whose  suicidal  policy  is  to  keep  you 
in  alienism.  In  the  name  of  the  dead,  black  or  white,  of  the  living, 
and  of  your  children  yet  unborn,  not  of  one  party  or  another,  but  an 
American  freemen,  vote!  For  in  this  free  land  the  people  who  do 
not  vote  do  not  get  and  do  not  deserve  their  rights." 

The  importance  of  the  ballot  is  not  overestimated  by  Mr. 
Cable,  and  the  fire  that  exudes  from  his  electric  pen  ought  to  blaze 
in  every  freeman's  heart — especially  in  the  heart  of  every  negro 
freeman  who  realizes  his  natural  rights  and  who  would  have  them 
granted,  not  as  a  boon  but  as  a  measure  of  justice.  The  ballot  alone 


ACDEXDA. 


131 


does  not  satisfy  the  debt  whicli  the  country  owes  to  the  ex-slave^ 
but  it  will  be  a  potent  means  of  securing  the  rights  so  long  and 
unjustly  deferred  if  used  in  a  safe,  a  prudent  and  a  worthy  manner. 
Xeither  will  the  voter  be  called  upon  to  wade  through  streams  of 
blood  or  to  lay  down  his  life  as  a  sacrifice  in  order  to  secure  the 
ends  of  justice  as  the  tenor  of  the  foregoing  extract  might  imply. 
Indeed,  the  men  of  the  Sotith,  who  once  held^the  negroes  in  sub- 
jection as  their  personal  estate,  are  nearly  uuanimous  in  their 
approval  of  the  right  of  sulfrage  on  the  part  of  their  former  slaves, 
and  the  right  carries  with  it  the  duty  to  exercise  that  right.  At 
least  such  is  the  sentiment  of  the  educated  men  of  the  South,  and 
these  constitute  there,  as  everywhere,  the  ruling  class.  General 
Wade  Hampton,  while  holding  tip  to  view  the  sad  consequences  of 
negro  supremacy  in  South  Carolina  during  the  reconstruction 
period  and  making  an  able  argument  against  a  policy  that  would 
reproduce  such  an  inexcusable  blunder,  takes  occasion  in  the 
columns  of  the  Forum  (see  June  number  1S88)  to  defend  the  right 
of  the  negro  to  the  ballot  when  qualified  to  exercise  it,  and  to  pro- 
claim himself  an  early  champion  of  such  suffrage,  having  officially 
advocated  the  same  when  serving  as  governor  of  the  State.  Upon 
this  subject  General  Hampton  wrote: 

'■'I  am  making  no  argument  against  their  right  to  vote  (right 
of  the  negroes),  for  in  1S6T,  before  Congress  had  taken  any  action 
looking  to  this  result,  I  maintained  that  this  privilege  should  be 
extended  to  them  under  educational  qualifications.  I  recognized 
then  that  in  a  republic  such  as  ours  no  citizen  ought  to  be  excluded 
from  any  of  tlie  rights  of  citizenship  because  of  his  color  or  of 
any  other  arbitrary  distinction.  I  therefore  advocated,  in  a  pub- 
lic address,  tliat  the  State  which  then,  under  the  Constitution,  had 
absolute  power  to  fix  the  qualific»tion  of  voters  should  give  the 
elective  franchise  to  the  negroes,  protecting  itself  by  imposing  an 
e d  u  c at i  0 n  al  q  u  al  i fi c a ti  0 n . 

It  would  naturally  appear  from  this  voluntary  declaration  of 
General  Hampton,  who  ha?  just  retired  from  the  United  States 
Senate  after  twelve  years  of  service  in  behalf  of  his  State,  that 
there  can  be  no  well-defined  reason  for  fearing  that  the  suffrage 
of  negro  citizens  is  likely  to  be  curtailed  in  South  Carolina;  and 
if  not  in  that  State,  it  is  exceedingly  improbable  that  such  an 
attempt  will  be  made  anywhere  else  within  the  territory  commonly 
known  as  '''the  South. Under  the  circumstances,  the  advice 
given  by  Mr.  Cable  to  the  negro  citizens  of  the  wdiole  country 
should  be  made  specially  applicable  to  the  Southern  portion.  Let 
them  vote.  But  in  the  name  of  humanity  it  may  be  well  inquired, 
''What  will  they  vote  for?^'  If  merely  to  give  somebody  an  office, 
the  franchise  will  certainly  not  be  made  of  especial  benefit  to  those 
subjects  of  an  ancient  barbarism  who  remain  with  us  for  a  time, 
but  who  are  passing  away  very  rapidly,  year  after  year;  and  in  the 
course  of  another  generation  there  will  scarcely  be  a  single  one  of 
the  old  slaves  left  to  tell  the  tale  of  involuntary  servitude  in  a 
land  which  dates  its  historic  story  from  the  discoveries  of  Colum- 
bus;,  its  freedom  from  the  heroic  struggle  of  Washington  and  the 


132 


ADDEifBA. 


emancipation  of  barbaric  relics  from  the  martyrdom  of  Abraham 
Lincoln! 

What  shall  the  old  slaves  vote  for?  Shall  it  be  that  something 
may  be  done  for  the  extension  of  knowledge  and  useful  imforma- 
tion^^  to  a  rising  generation/^  which  already  consumes  58  per 
cent,  of  the  school  tax  levy  of  a  populous  part  of  the  South,  and 
which  has  an  equal  advantage  in  every  dollar  of  school  taxes  that 
are  collected  in  every  State,  from  Maine  to  California  and  from 
the  new  State  of  Washington  to  the  peninsula  of  Florida?  Why, 
there  are  colleges  builded  by  voluntary  contributions  of  money,  given 
in  hope  and  with  many  a  heartfelt  prayer  for  success,  which  are 
dotting  the  plains  and  the  hill-sides  of  every  State  once  in  rebel- 
lion against  the  Federal  Government.  In  the  city  of  Nashville 
there  are  three  colored  universities  engaged  in  imparting  ^^knowl- 
edge and  useful  information to  the  ^'rising  generation of  the 
once  enslaved  South.  For  the  current  year  there  are  475  students 
catalogued  in  all  the  departments  of  the  Fisk  University;  in  the 
Central  Tennessee  College  there  are  541  students,  and  intheEoger 
Williams  College  192  students.  Other  parts  of  the  South  are  sin- 
gularly fortunate  in  the  number  of  their  colleges,  seminaries  and 
high  schools  devoted  to  the  especial  work  of  imparting  "knowledge 
and  useful  information^'  to  the  "rising  generation"  which  has 
come  into  existence  from  the  sacred  family  relations  of  fathers  and 
mothers  who  toiled  in  slavish  drudgery  upon  Southern  fields  prior 
to  the  work  of  war  and  emancipation. 

It  can  scarcely  be  said,  then,  that  the  compensation  due  from 
the  Government  to  ex-slaves,  in  mitigation  of  great  wrongs  endured 
in  slavish  days,  can  be  justly  set  aside  for  the  behoof  of  '^a  rising 
generation, already  fairly  well  provided  for  in  the  specific  lines 
which  ex-Congressman  Langston  has  laid  out  as  the  way  wherein 
justice  and  reparation  may  be  established  with  a  view  to  curing 
tne  wounds  of  body  and  mind  which  old-time  slaves  have  been 
made  to  suffer. 

No,  no.  Do  not  let  the  blessings  which  coming  generations 
may  possibly  reap  from  benevolence  and  benefices  now  bestowed  by 
Government  or  State  aid,  or  given  in  kindly  gratuity  from  private 
purses,  close  our  eyes  or  dull  our  ears  to  the  existing  demand  for 
material  and  speedy  aid  due^  and  owing  to  the  gray-haired  veter- 
ans of  the  rice,  the  cotton,  the  corn  and  sugar  fields  of  the  old- 
time  South.  These  old  men  and  women  suffered  the  evils  of 
slavery.  They  toiled  without  recompense  or  reward.  They  fur- 
nished the  material  prosperity  of  States,  and  their  toil  made  their 
masters  wealthy,  and  their  mistresses  ladies.  They  did  it  willingly 
because  it  was  lawful  that  it  should  be  done.  They  spent  their 
best  days  to  make  fabulous  wealth  for  State  and  Nation.  In  an 
hour  when  no  man  knew  what  was  coming,  they  were  made  at 

once  freemen  an^d  paupers!    The  Government  did  it.  The 

Government  sent  them  adrift  from  their  places  in  life,  and  made  a 
national  hardship  to  be  a  bitter,  withering,  private  hardship  upon 
them  and  their  helpless  children,  without  a  particle  of  provision 
to  save  them  from  starvation  and  desolation.  In  their  general 
interest  Government  aid  is  now  invoked.    In  their  personal  interest 


ADDEi^DA. 


133 


the  sufferers  are  invoked  to  aid  themselves  by  their  industry  an  d 
their  votes,  in  advancing  their  own  cause.  Let  them  stand  together 
for  themselves.  Let  them  vote  unitedly  for  men  who  will  help 
them  as  the  cry  for  help  is  raised.  Thanks  to  the  people  of  the 
North  and  the  South,  who  have  made  these  old  slaves  to  be  citi- 
zens and  voters,  to  the  end  that  they  may  use  the  ballot  in  the  day 
of  their  appeal  for  justice  to  secure  the  establishment  of  that  jus- 
tice as  well  by  their  own  acts  as  through  the  acts  of  their  fellow- 
men. 

But,  aside  from  voting  in  their  own  interest,  it  is  the  solemn 
duty  of  freedmen  to  take  such  measures  for  the  advancement  of 
their  claims  upon  the  Government  which  set  them  free  as  to  make 
their  appeal  united  and  compact.  In  voting  for  candidates  for 
ofiSce,  as  before  declared,  there  should  be  unity  of  effort  only  to 
the  extent  that  their  own  fyends  and  advocates  are  chosen  for 
place,  so  that  the  places  may  be  used  to  advance  a  noble  cause. 
Friends  of  the  cause  at  heart,  of  every  political  organization, 
ought  to  command  the  approbation  and  support  of  freedmen. 
But  for  the  purpose  of  arriving  at  a  just  conclusion  as  to  the  men 
who  may  be  depended  upon  to  do  the  right  thing  at  the  right 
time,  there  ought  to  be  the  very  closest  organization  of  freedmen, 
and  of  their  adherents,  especially  of  men  of  color,  in  every  com- 
munity where  an  association  of  determined  men,  united  in  thought 
and  feeling,  can  be  harmoniously  combined  for  necessary  work  in 
unison . 

Associations  of  negroes  and  their  friends  ought  to  be  formed  in 
every  town  and  county  in  the  United  States,  or  in  every  commu- 
nity where  such  formations  may  be  found  practicable,  and  the 
central  idea  and  thought  of  the  various  clubs  should  be  the 
advancement  of  the  claim  of  freedmen  for  government  pension. 
The  formation  of  a  cordon  of  Freedmen's  Pension  clubs  through- 
out the  land  would  bring  together  a  political  strength  and  powder 
that  would  be  irresistible  because  of  its  ability  to  sway  party  organ- 
izations and  to  bring  victory  or  defeat  to  friends  or  enemies  as  the 
exponents  of  political  creeds  might  declare  themselves  in  speech 
or  letter  when  appealing  for  popular  suffrage.  In  short,  the  plain 
duty  of  freedmen  is  not  to  become  indissolubly  united  in  favor  of 
or  in  opposition  to  tariff  laws  or  revenue  laws  cf  any  special  school 
of  thought  in  those  lines,  or  upon  general  politics,  but  they  should 
stand  together  for  the  advancement  of  their  own  rights. 

Referring  once  more  to  the  able  arguments  which  Mr.  George 
W.  Cable,  in  his  magazine  discussions,  has  advanced  in  the  inter- 
est of  the  negro  race,  while  seeking  to  make  a  solution  of  the  great 
negro  problem,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  reproduce  his  opinions  upon 
the  topic  of  negro  club  formation  and  the  propriety  of  such  organ- 
izations being  made  to  spread  over  the  States  of  the  Union,  wher-. 
ever  there  may  be  communities  having  a  percentage  of  colored  cit- 
izens suitable  for  the  maintenance  of  such  societies.  Listen  to  the 
advice  of  a  friend.  Mr.  Cable,  in  his  contribution  to  the  August 
number  of  the  Forum,  1888,  very  truly  and  tersely  says: 

**From  the  earliest  days  of  his  emancipation  the  negro  has 
shown  a  zest  and  gift  for  organization,  and  to-day  his  private,  pub- 


134 


ADDENDA. 


lie  and  secret  societies,  which  cost  him  money  to  maintain,  have 
thousands  of  members.  Yet  only  here  and  there  among  them  is 
there  a  club  or  league  for  the  advocacy  and  promotion  of  his  civil 
rights.  There  is  probably  no  other  great  national  question  so 
nearly  destitute  of  a  championship  of  an  active  national  organiza- 
tion, with  officers,  treasury  and  legal  counsel.  The  causes  of  this 
are  plain  enough.  As  long  as  it  was  the  supreme  political  issue  it 
was  left,  after  our  American  fashion,  entirely  to  the  heated  treat- 
ment of  the  daily  press,  the  stump,  and  the  national  and  State  leg- 
islatures. From  them  a  large  part  of  the  question  passed  into  a 
long  period  of  suspense  in  the  supreme  court.  Only  the  matter  of 
casting  and  counting  votes  kept,  and  keeps,  the  attention  of  par- 
ties, and  this  with  a  constant  loss  of  power,  showing  that  partisan 
treatment  is  no  longer  the  questions  only  or  chief  need.^'' 

The  sentiments  of  the  foregoing  extract  are  to  be  commended, 
for  the  especial  reason  that  they  point  out  to  the  negro  a  fact 
which  he  must  sooner  or  later  learn,  and  in  the  long  run  may  learn 
to  his  sorrow — that  ^'  only  the  matter  of  casting  and  counting 
votes  now  keeps  the  attention  of  political  parties"  turned  to  his 
condition.  Professional  politicians  care  only  for  the  negro  on 
account  of  his  vote,  and  when  that  has  been  secured  they  care 
nothing  in  the  wide  world  for  the  man  who  casts  the  vote.  He 
may  starve  and  die  for  all  that  the  political  demagogue  may  know 
or  care.  His  personal  comfort,  the  well-being  of  his  family,  the 
success  of  the  individual  in  daily  toil  or  commercial  pursuits,  in 
no  wise  concerns  the  sleek-fed  politician  who  has  been  foisted  into 
office  through  the  medium  of  the  ballots  of  colored  citizens. 

Hence  the  importance  of  the  negroes  using  their  talent  and 
penchant  for  organization  in  a  way  to  advance  their  personal  claims 
upon  the  Government,  and  for  the  furtherance  of  their  just  demand 
for  indemnity  for  ages  of  wrong  imposed  by  law  under  the  strong 
arm  of  constitutional  authority.  The  talent  of  organization  is  a 
happy  and  a  safe  means  of  securing  results  that  will  fill  the  purse 
and  make  the  aged  veteran  of  the  plantation  an  independent  sov- 
ereign in  his  old  and  declining  days.  But  the  chief  end  of  such 
organization  must  be  directed  to  the  immediate  concerns  of  the 
masses  of  mankind  released  from  slavery  rather  than  to  the  secur. 
ing  of  technical  civil  rights,  which  will  invariably  follow  success  in 
life.  Put  money  in  your  purses  and  respectability  will  ensue  just 
as  certainly  as  that  water  escaping  from  a  gathered  reservoir  will 
run  down  hill,  pursuant  to  the  established  laws  of  gravitation.  Let 
associations  be  formed  as  Mr.  Cable  advises;  and  when  formed,  let 
the  first  thought  of  those  organizations  be  the  requiting  of  the  debt 
which  the  Government  justly  owes  to  its  former  bondmen.  When 
that  debt  has  been  requited,  there  will  be  very  little  occasion  for  a 
new  demand  in  favor  of  civil  rights  on  the  part  of  colored  citizens, 
for  the  reason  that  their  status  in  life  will  be  so  well  established 
that  his  rights  will  be  everywhere  respected  in  the  same  degree  that 
citizens  of  the  Caucasian  race  have  honorable  and  just  recognition 
in  society  co-extensive  with  their  just  claims  and  personal  merits. 

In  the  formation  of  clubs  for  the  advancement  of  the  best  ends 
of  the  colored  race,  which  organizations  Mr,  Cable  would  probably 


ADDEXDA. 


135 


prefer  to  be  known  as  Civil  Rights  Societies,  but  for  which  the 
title  of  Freedmen's  Pension  Clubs  would  be  in  better  taste  and 
more  fitting  for  the  ends  to  be  established  through  the  bringing  of 
men  together  in  organized  bodies,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  an 
outlay  of  present  means  will  become  absolutely  necessary.  The  pro 
rata  of  expense  will  be  trivial,  as  it  applies  to  each  individual,  but 
it  will  be  sufficient  in  the  aggregate  to  accomplish  the  end  in  view, 
and,  like  bread  cast  upon  the  water,  it  will  return  after  many  days. 
Indeed,  the  good  seed  so  planted  will  spring  up  and  bring  forth 
fruit  that  may  be  styled,  in  Scriptural  language,  thirty,  sixty  and  a 
hundred-fold.  The  harvest  will  be  plentiful,  and  the  crop  of 
exceeding  richness.  Then  organize.  Do  so  at  once,  in  order  that 
the  effort  may  be  joint  and  united,  calculated  to  secure  immediate 
action  and  ready  relief.  Here,  again,  it  may  be  in  place  to  quote  from 
the  timely  and  candid  advice  of  Mr.  Cable.  He  speaks  with  truth 
and  power  in  these  words: 

"  And  you  must  spend  your  own  money.  ISTo  full  use  of  the 
liberties  you  now  have  can  be  made  without  co-operation,  however 
loose  that  co-operation  may  have  to  be;  and  no  co-operation  can 
be  very  wide,  active  or  effective  without  the  use  of  money.  This 
tax  can  not  be  laid  anywhere  upon  a  few  purses.  Falling  upon 
many,  it  will  rest  too  lightly  to  be  counted  a  burden.  White  men 
may  and  should  help  to  bear  it;  but,  if  so,  then  all  the  more  the 
negro  must  spend  his  own  money.  Half  the  amount  now  idled 
away  on  comparatively  useless  societies  and  secret  orders  will  work 
wonders.''^ 

Perhaps  the  point  in  view  would  be  more  sharply  defined  and 
better  understood  in  case  it  should  be  said  that  the  "  compara- 
tively useless  societies  and  secret  orders  now  in  existence,  but 
performing  or  accomplishing  no  very  desirable  work,  may  be  made 
useful  agencies  in  their  associated  existence,  by  imposing  upon 
them  the  grand  labor  of  working  harmoniously  together  for  the 
passage  of  Vaughan^s  Freedmen^s  Pension  bill  and  for  making  the 
plea  m  behalf  of  freedmen  so  potent  and  unmistakable,  that  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States  will  not  dare  to  longer  delay  the 
work  of  justice  which  the  condition  of  the  ex-slaves  of  the  repub- 
lic to-day  demands  at  its  hands. 

Perhaps  it  may  be  asked  by  what  power  of  reasoning  can  it  be 
said  that  the  voice  of  the  negro  race  of  our  land  may  be  made 
effectual  for  the  passage  of  the  Vaughan  bill,  even  in  case  the  entire 
colored  population  of  the  United  States  should  stand  together? 
The  answer  is  easy  and,  when  the  facts  are  understood,  ought  to  be 
convincing.  The  negroes  of  the  United  States  amount  to  about 
twelve  per  cent,  of  the  total  population.  Such  an  aggregation  of 
people,  when  united  in  any  just  demand,  can  not  fail  to  command 
attention.  The  appeal  of  such  a  number  of  people  in  behalf  of 
justice  and  the  right  will  be  certain  to  carry  conviction.  The  cen- 
sus statistics  of  the  year  just  passed,  collated  by  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment, show  that  the  numbers  of  the  colored  population  have 
not  been  overstated .  The  best  informed  men  of  the  land  recog- 
nized, prior  to  census  reports  being  made  public,  that  the  negro 
was  an  important  factor  in  our  body  politic.    Senator  John  T. 


136 


ADDENDA. 


Morgan,  in  discussing  the  question,  Shall  Negro  Majorities 
Eule?^^  through  the  columns  of  the  Forum.,  in  February,  1889, 
was  moved  to  say: 

^'We  have  not  accomplished  any  good  to  either  race  by  confer- 
ring upon  1,500,000  negroes  the  privilege  of  voting.  Its  effect  is 
to  neutralize  the  same  number  of  white  votes  that  would  otherwise 
be  cast  with  reference  to  the  general  welfare  and  prosperity  of  the 
country/' 

The  spirit  of  Senator  Morgan's  dictum  appears  to  be  predicated 
upon  the  fact,  which  possibly  does  not  admit  of  question,  that 
nearly  the  unaniuious  negro  vote,  immediately  following  the 
enfranchisement  of  the  race,  was  cast  in  opposition  to  the  general 
will  and  wish  of  the  white  people  who  had  held  those  negroes  iu 
servitude  in  the  time  of  slave  days.  It  is  needless  to  discuss  the 
reasons  which  made  such  a  vote  possible.  The  suddenness  of  suf- 
frage extension  to  the  negroes,  coupled  with  the  fact  that  the  white 
population  was  largely  disfranchised  as  a  penalty  for  participation  in 
favor  of  the  rebellion,  had  a  tendency  to  lead  the  newly  made 
freedmen  into  hostile  relations  with  their  former  owners  and  mas- 
ters when  they  became  nearly  sole  possessors  of  the  political  field. 
In  this  relation  of  hostility  the  negroes  were  greatly  encouraged  by 
designing  men  from  the  North,  who  took  advantage  of  the  unnat- 
ural situation  for  the  advancement  of  their  owu  political  and 
money-grabbing  schemes.  But  those  days  have  gone  by,  and 
will  never  return.  It  now  remains  for  the  white  men  of  the 
South,  who  have  been  restored  to  their  normal  condition  as  citi- 
zens and  property  owners,  and  who  constitute  the  large  prepond 
erance  of  the  Southern  voting  strength,  to  aid  and  encourage  the 
enactment  of  Vaughan's  Freedmen^s  Pension  bill  as  the  most  cer- 
tain means  for  the  restoration  of  peace  and  good- will  between  the 
white  and  black  citizenship  of  the  former  slave  States.  Such  a 
condition  of  amity  will  go  further  and  do  more  towards  the 
elucidation  of  the  extensively  discussed  negro  problem  than  all 
the  essays  and  speeches  which  scholars  and  statesmen  may  be 
able  to  contribute  to  that  end. 

With  a  hope  of  securing  full  and  complete  justice  to  the 
ex-slave  for  the  wrongs  of  government  which  he  has  been  made  to 
suffer,  it  will  be  important  for  harmony  of  action  to  exist  between 
all  his  friends  and  advocates  of  the  Caucasian  race.  In  order  that 
such  harmonious  sentiment  may  prevail,  the  discussion  of  methods 
designed  to  benefit  the  negro  must  be  lifted  above  the  plane  of 
party  politics.  If  partisan  prejudice  can  be  submerged  the  day  of 
a  great  boom  will  very  speedily  dawn  upon  the  men  and  women 
who  endured  the  dark  night  of  slavish  oppressiou,  and  who  yet 
remain  amongst  us  as  the  representatives  of  that  extinct  species  of 
barbarism  once  existing  in  our  fair  land.  The  pension  now  pro- 
posed to  be  extended  to  the  ex-slaves  is  not  a  payment  in  complete 
recompense  for  the  ages  of  serfdom  which  the  negroes  have  been 
made  to  endure,  but  it  will  be  accepted  as  an  indemnity  whereby 
a  great  nation  makes  acknowledgment  of  its  past  error,  just  as 
the  blood  ^f  the  Saviour  shed  upon  the  cross  is  recognized  as  an 
indemnification  for  the  sins  of  mankind.  Among  Christian  nations 


ADDEXDA. 


137 


a  money  indemnity  for  errors  of  one  government  committed 
against  another  is  the  accepted  mode  of  rendering  satisfaction. 
So  has  it  often  been  made  the  correct  method  of  indemnifying 
wrongs  done  by  a  gOTernnient  to  its  own  subjects.  Let  the  negro 
be  no  exception  to  other  sufferers  who  have  endured  national 
wrongs.  Recognizing  the  fact  that  many  writers  who  sincerely 
desire  to  see  the  negro  problem  solved  in  a  way  to  be  just  and 
equitable  towards  both  the  Caucasian  and  Ethiopian  races,  but 
whose  apparent  methods  have  tended  to  complicate  the  question, 
the  author  of  this  work  felt  obliged  to  combat  the  views  of  the 
Rev.  A.  D.  Mayo  as  they  were  promulgated  in  the  pages  of  the 
Forum,  in  the  November  number  1890  of  that  excellent  magazine. 
Accordingly  the  writer  published  a  communication  in  the  Chicago 
Herald,  May  1,  1891,  the  object  of  which  was  to  call  public  atten- 
tion to  the  fact  that  money  was  the  sole  agency  whereby  the  Gov- 
ernment could  clear  its  skirts  from  the  stain  of  human  slavery 
which  existed  during  three-quarters  of  a  century  of  our  constitu- 
tional existence  as  a  people.  At  the  same  time  it  was  designed  to 
strip  the  question  at  issue  of  every  possible  shade  of  partisan  bias. 
This  feature  of  the  problem  in  hand  may  be  concluded  for  the 
purpose  of  this  book  by  reproducing  the  communication  addressed 
to  t\\Q  Herald  appeared  under  the  caption  of  ^Oloney  is 

the  Agency/'  and  reads  as  follows: 

In  the  November  number  of  the  Forum  there  appeared  a 
thoughtful  and  scholarly  article  entitled  ^'The  Progress  of  the 
Negro/'  from  the  facile  pen  and  analytical  brain  of  Rev.  Amory 
D.  Mayo,  the  manifest  object  of  which  was  to  strip  the  negro 
problem  of  many  of  the  difficulties  which  suri'ound  it,  and  to 
make  its  final  elucidation  not  only  satisfactory  to  all  sections  of 
the  American  republic,  but  beneficial  alike  to  the  white  and  blacK 
races.  A  careful  perusal  of  the  argument  presented  by  the  learnel 
gentleman  will  afford  satisfactory  evidence  of  deep  study  and 
research  on  the  part  of  a  philosophical  thinker.  But  it  will  also 
bear  evidence  to  the  minds  of  persons  who  have  studied  the  negro 
problem  in  other  schools  than  that  in  which  the  graphic  writer 
has  been  educated  that  there  are  important  points  which  he  has 
failed  to  consider  altogether,  while  upon  some  of  the  features 
which  he  has  discussed  his  conclusions  have  been  partially  clouded 
through  a  manifest  political  bias.  While  Mr.  Mayo  has  carefully 
refrained  from  indulgence  in  anything  akin  to  absolute  partisan- 
ism,  there  is  a  latent  vein  of  subtlety  pervading  his  discourse  which 
obtrudes  itself  with  sufficient  distinctness  to  indicate  a  prejudice 
when  he  discusses  the  relations  of  the  ex-slaves  of  the  South  to 
the  local  governments  of  those  States  wherein  they  were  formerly 
held  in  bondage.  Perhaps  nowhere  does  this  feeling  become  so 
marked  as  in  the  asseveration  that  there  is  no ' solid  South' 
outside  of  the  Southern  democratic  party."  It  must  be  apparent 
to  every  candid  thinker  that  the  political  organization  which  con- 
trols the  local  State  governments  of  all  that  section  of  the  Amer- 
can  union  generally  comprehended  in  the  expression  of  ^'the 
South,"  and  has  done  so  with  scarcely  a  break  for  tw^o  decades, 
comes  very  near  to  making  its  dictum  in  political  affairs  an  expres- 


138 


sion  of  the  people  in  such  a  marked  degree  that  it  is  fair  to  say 
that  the  vote  of  the  party  may  be  accepted  as  the  voice  of  the 
people.  If  this  conclusion  can  be  accepted  as  true,  it  is  difficult 
to  conceive  how  the  weal  of  the  negroes  of  the  South,  in  educa- 
tional or  civic  matters,  can  be  promoted  except  through  such 
measures  as  the  dominant  party  may  encourage  or  assent  to.  The 
assumption  that  conditions  in  certain  States  point  to  a  new  polit- 
ical domination  is  not  borne  out  by  recent  experience. 

ALL  DEPENDS  OIsT  THE  DOMINANT  PARTY. 

With  the  light  of  more  than  twenty  years  as  a  guide,  running 
down  from  reconstruction  days  to  the  very  latest  expression  of 
political  sentiment  through  the  States  of  the  South,  it  naturally 
appears  that  the  future  behoof  of  the  Southern  negro  rests  very 
largely  in  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that  he  must  be  treated  solely 
in  his  capacity  as  a  citizen,  without  respect  to  such  political  alli- 
ances as  he  may  see  fit  to  maintain.  Questions  of  taxation,  of  edu- 
cation, of  the  acquirement  of  property,  and  nearly  all  the  immedi- 
ate concerns  of  life,  will  necessarily  be  settled  by  the  dominant 
party  in  State  affairs,  and  hence  it  is  of  the  highest  importance  to 
the  negro  to  place  no  unnatural  obstacles  in  the  way  of  that  gen- 
erous and  just  treatment  to  which  he  may  be  rightfully  entitled  as 
a  citizen.  It  is  conceded  that  the  States  of  the  South  have  made 
generous  educational  provision  for  the  colored  people,  especially 
those  States  which  are  progressing  most  rapidly  in  population  and 
wealth.  It  is  fair  to  presume  that  the  good  work  in  this  direction 
will  be  continued  and  amplified. 

With  respect  to  the  religious  and  moral  training  of  the  Southerir 
negroes,  and  the  higher  education  of  those  of  the  race  who  may  be 
able  to  command  facilities  for  learning  beyond  the  ordinary  pro- 
vision which  States  commonly  provide  for  the  sons  and  daughters 
of  the  rising  generation,  there  can  be  no  special  reason  assigned 
for  a  variance  of  treatment  from  the  accustomed  action  of  philan- 
thropic people  in  regard  to  the  culture  of  young  men  and  women 
of  white  parentage.  Academies,  seminaries,  colleges  and  churches 
of  all  kinds  may  be  provided  in  the  usual  way,  and  ought  to  be. 
This  is  a  work  which  has  commanded  the  best  consideration  of 
good  men  in  every  civilized  land.  A  splendid  beginning  has  been 
made  for  the  higher  culture  of  negro  youth  in  nearly  every  part  of 
the  South,  and  to-day  many  thousands  of  the  offspring  of  ex-slaves 
are  enjoying  the  advantages  of  classical  instruction.  The  number 
of  these  favored  children  of  negro  families  is  likely  to  keep  pace 
with  the  college-bred  young  men  and  women  of  white  parentage 
in  proportion  to  the  relative  numerical  strength  between  the  two 
races.  There  is  no  fear  that  religious  instruction  will  be  neglected 
on  the  part  of  any  of  the  churches  which  have  succeeded  in  build- 
ing up  and  maintaining  a  fair  following  in  the  various  communities 
of  the  South. 

NEGRO  LOVE  FOR  THE  SOUTH. 

W^ith  Mr.  Mayo  the  writer  will  heartily  join  in  the  opinion 
expressed  that  the  negroes,  as  a  class,  will  not  join  in  any  wild  and 


ADDEXDA. 


139 


fanciful  hegira  which  impracticable  people  may  organize^,  haying 
in  view  the  exportation  of  the  negro  population  or  for  it  dissem- 
ination at  home.'''  The  negro  has  his  local  ties  and  home  affec- 
tions that  bind  him  to  the  place  of  his  abode  and  the  kindred 
he  loves,  just  as  ardently  as  other  mortals  are  similarly  attached. 
Xow  and  then  individuals^  and  even  families,  may  emigrate  to  new 
States  and  habitations  for  the  betterment  of  their  circumstances, 
but  such  movements  are  of  common  occurrence  with  men  and  fam- 
ilies of  the  white  race.  In  this  respect  the  negro  is  a  personage 
of  like  feelings  and  impulses  with  other  men.  But  the  fact 
remains  true,  in  the  face  of  such  voluntary  changes  of  residence, 
that  the  average  negro  of  the  South  '*  is  a  Southern  American  man 
by  instinct,  temperament  and  training.*'  He  is  attached  to  the 
climate,  to  the  modes  of  toil,  to  the  system  of  indtistry  that  23re- 
vails.  and  nowhere  he  might  go  would  he  understand  so  thoroughly 
how  to  plant,  how  to  harvest  or  how  to  secure  the  best  returns  for 
the  expenditure  of  his  manual  labor.  He  has  no  wish  to  leave  the 
scenes  of  his  youth  and  his  manhood,  and  if  a  condition  of  peril  or 
of  force  should  oblige  him  to  seek  a  new  home  among  strangers 
he  would  consider  it  a  hardship  almost  too  great  to  be  borne. 
This  devoted  attachment  of  the  negro  to  home  scenes  and  environ- 
ments is  more  noticeable  among  the  classes  who  have  resided  in 
the  extreme  South  than  of  the  residents  within  the  border  States. 
Larger  numbers  have  removed  from  Missouri,  Kentucky,  the  Vir- 
ginias and  ]\raryland  since  the  conclusion  of  the  great  rebellion 
than  have  gone  out  from  the  Gulf  States  in  pursuit  of  new  places 
of  abode.  If  any  argument  can  be  deduced  from  these  facts  it  is 
to  the  elitct  that  the  extreme  southern  clime  is  better  suited  to  the 
physical  comfort  of  the  African  race  than  the  more  rigorous  and 
changeable  seasons  prevailing  along  the  border  line.  In  the  home 
the  negro  has  enjoyed  and  yet  cherishes  with  warm  attachment  he 
is  entitled  to  that  contentment  which  is  a  feature  of  his  race  and 
the  requisite  protection  to  make  him  an  independent  citizen  and 
respected  member  of  society. 

QUERIES  rOR  THE  PAIR-MIXDED. 

As  it  is  admitted,  even  by  the  carping  and  critical,  that  the 
negro  of  the  South,  and  especially  of  the  extreme  South,  is  devoted 
to  the  local  and  domestic  ties  which  have  environed  him  since  his 
freedom  from  servile  bondage  was  proclaimed;  that  the  States  of 
the  South  have  made  provision  for  the  education  of  the  younger 
generation:  that  the  laws  providing  for  schools  and  for  practical 
instruction  in  requisite  elementary  branches  are  continually  being 
amended,  so  that  their  application  may  be  made  more  feasible  and 
serviceable:  that  the  fullest  religious  and  civil  freedom  is  accorded 
to  the  negro  of  the  South  equally  with  the  white  resident  of  that 
section,  and  that  commendable  progress  has  been  made  by  Church 
and  State  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  in  bringing  citizens 
of  the  black  race^up  to  a  condition  worthy  of  their  advanced  con- 
dition in  life,  since  the  event  of  their  emancipation,  three  questions 
naturallv  present  themselves  for  the  consideration  of  the  fair,  the 


140 


ADDEl^DA. 


just  and  the  candid-minded  of  all  classes  and  conditions  of  society, 
viz. : 

1.  Is  there  anything  remaining  to  be  done  by  the  States  or  the 
nation  necessary  to  place  the  negro  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  his 
citizenship  and  to  make  him  a  useful  addition  to  the  governing 
class  of  our  population? 

2.  Is  there  an  honorable  obligation  due  from  the  States  or  the 
nation  to  the  negroes,  so  long  held  in  bondage,  that  has  not  been 
discharged,  or  sought  to  be  discharged,  by  the  agencies  immediately 
responsible  for  negro  emancipation? 

3.  Has  the  emancipation  from  slavery,  however  just  and 
righteous,  been  an  unmixed  blessing  to  the  ex-slaves,  and,  if  not, 
what  remedial  measure  is  awaiting  performance  in  order  that  per- 
fect justice  and  satisfaction  may  be  rendered? 

NOT  A  BOON",  BUT  A  NECESSITY. 

In  attempting  to  answer  these  queries,  which  are  so  intimately 
blended  together,  each  one,  in  fact,  constituting  a  part  of  the  other 
two,  it  will  be  found  more  satisfactory  and  complete  to  proceed 
with  the  discussion  in  a  general  line  rather  than  to  attempt  sep- 
arate answers.  The  waiter  can  not  agree  with  the  proposition  that 
at  any  time  ^'^the  freedman  was  invited  to  a  feast  so  rare,  rich  and 
abounding  that  it  is  not  strange  if  the  majority  of  the  eight  mill- 
ions have  not  yet  learned  how  to  behave  at  the  great  national 
table  and  how  to  satisfy  themselves  with  the  common  diet  of 
American  civilization.  ISo  such  generous  feast  has  been  provided. 
The  reference  of  the  learned  gentleman  from  whom  quotation  has 
been  made,  unquestionably  had  direct  reference  to  the  edict  of 
emancipation,  and  the  transition  from  slavery  to  freedom  is  the 
allegorical  feast  which-  the  former  subjects  of  the  era  of  slavery 
have  not  enjoyed  with  that  perfect  decorum  which  is  the  natural 
attendant  of  perfect  politeness.  Emancipation  came  to  the  negro 
not  as  a  boon,  but  as  a  necessary  contingent  of  a  mighty  war.  It 
was  not  the  two  proclamations  of  Abraham  Lincoln  that  set  the 
old  slaves  free.  Neither  was  it  the  amendment  to  the  Federal  con- 
stitution which  prohibited  slavery  within  the  nation,  nor  yet  the 
amendments  to  the  organic  laws  of  the  several  Southern  States 
that  gave  to  the  bondmen  the  precious  boon  of  freedom.  It  was 
the  solid  tramp  of  the  boys  in  blue  and  the  dreadful  circumstances 
of  war  that  struck  the  shackles  of  servitude  from  the  limbs  of 
nearly  six  millions  of  human  beings.  When  the  smoke  of  battle 
had  rolled  away  the  men  and  women  of  the  days  of  slavery  and  the 
dependent  little  ones  born  of  slave  parentage  found  themselves 
without  masters^  without  homes,  without  means  of  subsistence,  and 
surrounded  by  all  the  horrors  of  coming  starvation,  unless  their 
brawney  arms  and  dusky  frames  were  put  to  the  severest  toil  for 
the  purpose  of  procuring  immediate  relief.  This  was  the  enticing 
feast  to  which  the  old  slaves  were  invited  to  sit  down,  and  this  was 
the  lavish  feast  of  husks  upon  which  the  hunger  of  the  emanci- 
pated millions  was  to  be  satisfied . 

HOW  TO  SOLYE  THE  GREAT  PROBLEM. 

For  three-quarters  of  a  century  following  the  formation  of  our 


ADDENDA. 


141 


federal  systeiu  of  government,  the  institution  of  human  slavery 
was  upheld  and  supported  under  the  authority  of  the  constitution 
of  the  United  States.  The  men  and  women  of  slave  days  were  not 
human  beings  in  the  eyes  of  the  law.  They  were  chattels,  subject 
to  commercial  exchange  the  same  as  any  other  commodity.  They 
were  subject  to  the  same  laws  as  the  cotton  they  picked  or  the 
corn  they  raised.  The}^  were  subjects  for  the  market  and  for  taxa- 
tion, just  as  any  other  marketable  product  was  taxable  for  the  pur- 
pose of  providing  a  public  revenue.  The  four  dreadful  years  span- 
ning the  time  from  the  assault  upon  Tort  Sumpterto  the  surrender 
of  Appomattox  changed  the  condition  of  the  once  slave,  and  he 
came  forth  free,  without  a  home  or  a  place  to  lay  his  head.  A 
measure  of  justice  on  tlie  part  of  a  great  government  demands  that 
the  old  slaves  be  no  longer  denied  their  natural  right  of  recom- 
pense for  all  the  years  of  toil  when  the  strong  arm  of  the  Govern- 
ment held  them  in  bondage  without  their  consent  and  without  the 
commission  of  a  crime  as  a  lawful  excuse  for  their  restraint  from 
liberty.  Let  the  Government  be  just  to  the  former  subjects  of 
slavery,  even  at  this  late  day,  and  then  it  will  be  found  that  the 
negro  problem  will  have  solved  itself.  Then  it  will  not  be  neces- 
sary for  statesmen,  savants,  ministers  of  the  gospel,  friends  of 
humanity  and  lovers  of  justice  to  meet  in  conventions  or  religious 
bodies  to  seek  out  a  way  to  place  the  subjects  of  a  great  wrong 
upon  a  plane  where  they  can  work  out  their  temporal  as  well  as 
their  eternal  salvation.  As  before  declared,  the  troublesome  prob- 
lems resulting  from  slave  days  will  have  been  solved  so  readily  and 
so  clearly  that  all  will  wonder  that  it  ever  should  have  required 
solution  from  a  great,  a  generous  and  a  noble  people. 

PEXSIOXS  FOE  THE  FKEEDMEK. 

For  the  purpose  of  giving  ample  relief  to  the  ex-slaves  of  the 
South  the  writer,  after  years  of  thought  and  an  extensive  corres- 
pondence with  public  men  of  the  country,  prepared  a  bill  to  be 
presented  in  Congress  '^'to  provide  pensions  for  freedmen  released 
from  involuntary  servitude,'^  which  was  introduced  in  the  House 
of  Repre6entatives  on  June  24,  1890,  by  William  J.  Connell,  con- 
gressman from  the  First  District  of  Nebraska.  The  bill  gradu- 
ates the  pensions  according  to  the  age  of  the  pensioner,  and 
intrusts  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  the  preparation  of  all  need- 
ful rules  and  regulations  for  carrying  the  act  into  full  force  and 
effect.  The  bill  was  read  twice,  referred  to  the  Pensions  Commit- 
tee and  ordered  to  be  printed.  It  so  stands  to-day  upon  the  unfin- 
ished business  of  Congress.  The  second  section  of  the  proposed 
act  reads  as  follows: 

Sec.  2.  Any  person  who  may  have  been  held  as  a  slave  or  involuntary 
servant,  under  and  by  reason  of  any  law  of  the  United  States,  or  in  conse- 
quence of  any  device  or  custom  prevailing  within  such  State  or  the  United 
States,  except  for  the  commission  of  crime,  whereof  the  party  shall  have 
been  duly  convicted,  and  who  shall  have  been  released  from  such  servitude 
in  manner  before  stated,  and  who  shall  at  the  date  of  the  passage  of  this  act 
have  reached  the  age  of  seventy  years,  shall  be  entitled  to  and  receive  the 
sum  of  $500  from  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States,  hereby  authorized  to  be 
paid  out  of  any  moneys  not  otherwise  appropriated,  and  the  sum  of  $15  per 


14^ 


ADDEKBA. 


month  during  the  residue  of  their  natural  lives.  This  provision  shall  apply 
to  male  and  female  alike.  And  all  persons  so  released  from  servitude  who 
shall  be  less  than  seventy  years  of  age  and  of  the  age  of  sixty  years  or  over 
shall  be  entitled  to  receive  the  sum  of  $300,  and  $12  per  month  until  they 
shall  reach  the  age  of  seventy  years,  when  they  shall  be  entitled  to  and  receive 
the  greater  sum  of  $15  hereinbefore  stated  as  a  monthly  payment.  And  all 
persons  released  from  servitude  as  before  stated  who  shall  be  less  than  sixty 
years  old,  and  of  the  age  of  fifty  years  or  over,  shall  be  entitled  to  receive 
the  sum  of  $100  and  also  $8  per  month  until  sixty  years  old,  when  they  shall 
receive  $12.  And  all  persons  released  from  servitude  as  before  stated  who 
shall  be  less  than  fifty  years  of  age  shall  be  entitled  to  receive  $4  until  fifty 
years  old,  when  they  shall  receive  $8.  All  moneys  herein  authorized  to  be 
paid  shall  be  dispensed  from  the  general  funds  of  the  Treasury  not  otherwise 
appropriated. 

MOKEY  IS  THE  PROPER  AGEKCY. 

In  the  crude  bill  from  whicli  the  foregoing  section  has  been 
quoted  will  be  found  the  means  of  elucidating  the  negro  problem, 
which  will  outweigh  in  its  practical  effect  all  the  special  pleas  that 
may  be  put  up  in  favor  of  methods  to  benefit  the  ex-slaves  by  con- 
ventions of  the  people,  either  civil  or  religious.  The  negroes  were 
once  slaves,  made  so  by  authority  of  the  federal  constitution. 
They  have  been  emancipated,  but  no  provision  has  been  made  for 
the  support  of  the  old  and  poor,  who  have  endured  the  heat  and 
burden  of  the  slavish  task.  Schools  and  colleges  have  been  pre- 
pared for  the  education  of  the  young,  but  reasonable  financial 
relief  will  lift  those  who  have  toiled  all  their  better  days  out  of 
misery  and  dependency  in  their  declining  years.  The  Government 
can  afford  to  exercise  this  act  of  justice  and  mercy  as  a  satisfaction 
for  tlie  wrong  it  formerly  permitted  and  encouraged.  Place  the 
old  slaves  in  a  position  of  financial  independence,  and  the  gordiau 
knot  which  wise  men  have  been  vainly  trying  to  untie  will  be  at 
once  cut  in  twain.  Money  is  the  agency  that  will  solve  the  negro 
problem.  Enable  the  old  slaves  to  acquire  homes,  to  live  in  com- 
fort, and  they  will  at  once  acquire  a  respectability  they  have  not 
hitherto  attained.  Wealth,  and  even  a  competency,  always  carries 
with  it  the  highest  respect.  Competency,  and  not  poverty,  will 
solve  the  troublesome  problem. 

On  one  occasion  a  poor  man  approached  a  ferry  on  a  broad 
river,  jnst  as  the  ferry  boat  was  about  to  cross  over.  He  begged 
to  be  taken  across,  but  had  no  money.  ^^The  fare  is  only  five 
cents,^^  said  the  ferryman.  The  poor  man  replied,  "  I  have  not 
the  five  cents."  After  pondering  a  few  seconds  the  ferryman 
remarked:  Well,  I  guess  you  had  better  remain  where  you  are. 
If  you  are  not  possessed  of  a  single  5-cent  piece,  it  can^t  make  any 
difference  which  side  of  the  river  you^re  on.^'  This  little  story 
amply  illustrates  the  condition  of  the  freedmen  consequent  upon 
their  emancipation  from  slaver}^ 

Walter  Raleigh  Vaughan". 
Passing  from  a  discussion  of  the  right  of  American  freedmen  to 
compensation,  it  would  be  natural  to  inquire  wherein  savage  gov- 
ernments, or  half  civilized,  have  had  to  pay  tribute  for  impressing 
Americans  into  servitude;  but  statistics  on  such  points  have  been 
covered  in  a  way  to  prevent  scrutiny,  or  the  departmental  officers 
at  Washington  have  been  reluctant  to  tell  what  they  know  in  a  way 


ADDENDA. 


143 


that  may  be  to  the  interest  of  the  negro.  At  least  the  officials  of 
state  have  been  reh^ctant  to  give  facts  which  might  be  made  avail- 
able for  the  behoof  of  old  slaves.  A  letter  was  addressed  to  Secre- 
tar}^  Blaine  from  the  office  of  the  Omaha  Daily  Democrat,  under 
date  of  August  18,  1890,  in  which  the  following  request  was  made: 

^'It  is  the  wish  of  this  paper  to  learn  officially  the  measure  and 
detail  of  damages  which  may  have  been  paid,  in  any  manner,  to 
American  citizens  or  seamen  in  consequence  of  seizure  and  impris- 
onment byforeign  governments,  or  their  subjection  to  servitude  by 
such  governments,  under  any  pretense  whatever.  The  case  of 
Americans  held  in  Tripoli,  for  whose  release  the  expedition  under 
Stephen  Decatur  was  fitted  out,  is  perhaps  the  most  noteworthy 
and  important.  What  indemnity  was  paid,  how  distributed,  and 
to  whom?  Any  other  instances  of  seizure  of  Americans,  for  what 
cause,  how  long  held,  and  the  circumstances  of  indemnity,  will  be 
gladly  received,  to  be  used  for  public  purposes. 

Imagine  the  surprise  experienced  to  receive  such  an  answer  as 
the  following,  which  is  inserted  in  full: 

Department  of  State,  ) 
Washington,  September,  9,  1890.  ) 
W.  R.  Van glian,  Esquire,  Editor  of  the  Omaha  Democrat,  Omaha,  Neb. 

Sir:  Adverting  to  so  much  of  your  letter  of  the  18th  ultimo  as  has  ref- 
erence to  the  sums  paid  by  the  United  States  in  certain  cases,  I  have  now  to 
inform  you  that  you  will  doubtless  find  the  desired  information  in  senate 
executive  document  No.  38,  XLIVth  congress,  second  session,  being  a 
"statement  of  appropriations  and  expenditures,  civil  and  miscellaneous, 
of  the  Department  of  State  from  March  4,  1789,  to  June  30,  1876  "  I  am,  sir, 
your  obedient  servant,  William  F.  Wharton, 

Acting  Secretary. 

Imagine  the  disgust  of  the  author  hereof  to  find  that  the 
volume  referred  to  contained  no  reference  to  the  Decatur  expedi- 
tion whatever.  Perhaps  the  expenditure  was  neither  civil nor 
miscellaneous."  But  there  was  an  indemnity  paid,  and  the 
amount  was  by  no  means  trivial.  A  nation  that  asks  iudemnity 
should  pay  indemnity  where  due.  It  is  due  to  the  old  slaves  oi 
the  South. 

About  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  American  merchant 
vessels  plying  the  waters  of  the  Mediterranean  were  annoyed  by 
the  incursions  of  Moorish  pirates  and  predatory  crews  who  robbed 
cargoes,  burned  trading  ships  and  carried  American  seamen  into 
captivity  where  they  were  sold  as  slaves.  Commodore  Stephen 
Decatur,  with  a  fleet  of  vessels,  was  dispatched  to  the  Barbary 
States  to  release  the  enslaved  seamen  and  demand  indemnity.  The 
flagship  of  the  squadron,  the  Philadelphia,  grounded  in  the  harbor 
of  Tripoli  and  to  prevent  her  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy 
she  was  burned  by  her  escaping  crew.  Decatur's  forces  began  a 
bombardment  which  terminated  by  the  authorities  of  Tripoli  mak- 
ing terms.  They  surrendered  all  captives  in  their  possession  and 
paid  an  indemnity  to  the  men  who  had  been  enslaved,  to  the  mer- 
chants whose  property  had  been  destroyed  and  to  the  Government 
for  the  sacrifice  of  a  valuable  war  steamer.  Diligent  inquiry  at 
Washington  has  not  been  successful  in  learning  the  amount  of 


144 


ADDENDA. 


the  indemnity  paid  by  Tripoli  or  the  names  of  the  recipients  of  the 
bounty. 

For  the  purpose  of  showing  a  want  of  feeling  on  the  part  of 
many  persons  at  the  South  toward  old  slaves,  though  the  number 
is  only  a  small  minority  of  the  entire  population,  a  single  instance 
may  be  produced  in  this  connection.  The  author  sent  postal  cards 
to  the  mayors  and  postmasters  of  several  hundreds  of  Southern 
cities  and  towns,  making  inquiry  as  to  the  *^most  reliable  and  » 
intelligent  negroes^' of  the  respective  localities  whither  the  inquir- 
ies were  sent.  From  a  prominent  point  in  Florida  the  information 
Avas  imparted  that  Henry  Hutchinson  and  William  E.  Jones  might 
be  reckoned  among  the  most  intelligent  class,  with  the  additional 
information  that  both  gentlemen  were  small  merchants."  But 
the  statement  was  coupled  with  the  gratuitous  slur  that  there 
Sire  no7ie 'reViMe/ "  Such  a  feeling  is  not  honorable  to  the  men 
of  the  South.  It  constitutes  an  impediment  to  the  perfect  estab- 
lishment of  peace  and  good  will  between  the  races  which  compose 
the  Southern  population,  and  which  is  essential  to  the  material 
development  of  that  part  of  our  common  country.  .  It  is  due,  how- 
ever, to  the  people  of  the  South  to  say  that  of  the  hundreds 
of  inquiries  made  only  three  replies  were  similar  to  the  case 
stated  above,  which  reflected  upon  the  general  character  of  the 
negro  as  a  citizen  and  man  of  business.  It  is  humiliating  to  add 
that  all  three  of  the  letters  which  contained  reflections  upon  the 
negroes  as  a  class  of  people  came  from  Government  officials, 
appointed  to  office  by  an  administration  which  poses  as  the  dis- 
tinctive supporter  and  advocate  of  the  recently  emancipated  race. 

Very  few  persons,  aside  from  an  intensely  philanthropic  class 
of  people  which  is  circumscribed  in  numbers  and  influence,  can 
have  an  idea  of  the  rebuffs  which  a  person  meets  in  undertaking  a 
great  work  of  humanity.  The  anti-slavery  agitation  of  half  a  cen- 
tury ago  must  have  made  such  stout  hearts  as  those  of  William 
Lloyd  Garrison,  Wendell  Phillips,  Dr.  Bailey,  Horace  Greeley, 
Gerritt  Smith,  John  Greenleaf  Whittier  and  scores  of  others  to 
quake  when  they  encountered  the  storm  of  adverse  criticism  to 
which  their  efforts  in  the  cause  of  humanity  gave  rise.  But  they 
had  blazed  a  path  through  the  dark  forest  of  prejudice  and  super- 
stition which  they  trod  until  it  became  the  highway  of  justice  and 
God-given  right.  Their  work  became  easy  enough  when  it  was 
taken  up  by  a  great  political  organization,  thus  bringing  to  their 
aid  the  forces  of  half  the  voting  strength  of  a  score  of  States, 
intensified  by  the  constant  appeals  of  tens  of  thousands  of  men 
who  hoped  to  ride  into  office  and  local  power  by  means  of  party 
success.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  grant  of  pensions  to  the  old 
slaves  of  this  land  will  be  accomplished  without  disturbing  the 
harmony  of  party  lines.  But  if  the  blindness  of  party  infatuation 
refuses  the  right,  for  the  sake  of  party,  the  work  must  and  will 
go  on  until  success  is  achieved  by  riding  an  existing  party  to  the 
death  and  bringing  to  the  front  a  new  hope,  upon  the  banner 
whereof  the  motto  of  justice  shall  be  emblazoned  in  letters  of  light 
and  life. 


145 


It  may  not  be  improper  at  this  stage  of  the  pending  discussion 
to  say  that  every  effort  to  pave  the  way  for  assistance  in  the  good 
work  in  hand  has  been  made,  and,  while  a  degree  of  success  has 
been  achieved,  the  majority  of  people  abundantly  able  to  help  for- 
ward the  appeal  in  behalf  of  the  ex-slaves  of  our  Union  have 
either  excused  themselves  from  helping  the  cause,  or  have  ignored 
the  appeal  addressed  to  them  altogether.  Beginning  at  the  point 
of  highest  authority  in  temporal  affairs,  it  was  thought  that  the 
moral  aid  and  encouragement  of  the  ruler  of  a  people  which  pro- 
duced a  Wilberforce,  to  battle  for  the  suppression  of  the  slave 
trade,  might  be  invoked  in  behalf  of  the  relicts  of  a  slavery  planted 
on  American  soil  by  means  of  British  cupidity.  So  the  queen  of 
Britain  was  asked  to  help  forward  the  work  in  hand,  through  a 
communication  addressed  to  her  majesty  from  Omaha,  Neb., 
immediately  after  the  publication  of  the  first  edition  of 
^^Vaughan^s  Freedmen's  Pension  Bill "  and  appeal,  in  pamphlet 
book  form.  Accompanying  a  copy  of  the  work  mailed  to  her 
address  the  following  letter  was  written  to  Queen  Victoria  from 
the  office  of  the  Omaha  Daily  Democrat,  in  the  summer  of  3  890: 
To  Her  Majesty,  Victoria,  Queen  of  the  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and 

Ireland,  Windsor  Castle,  near  London,  England. 
May  it  Please  Your  Gracious  Majesty: 

I  send  you  to-day,  by  mail,  a  copy  of  a  small  volume  which  I  have  pre- 
pared, entitled  "  Vaughan's  Freedman's  Pension  Bill,  or  a  Plea  for  the  Old 
Slave." 

If  your  Majesty  will  have  the  kindness  to  peruse  the  volume  I  have  the 
honor  to  mail  to  your  address,  you  will  find  a  copy  of  the  bill  I  have  had 
introduced  in  the  American  Congress,  asking  that  pensions  be  granted  to 
emancipated  slaves.  As  your  country  had  control  of  this  at  the  time  the 
institution  of  African  slavery  was  introduced  on  this  soil,  I  hope,, and  believe, 
you  will  find  the  SMbject  treated  by  me  of  possible  interest  to  you  and  the 
people  of  your  great  kingdom.  As  I  desire  to  place  a  copy  of  my  publication 
in  the  hands  of  every  Anglo-Saxon  citizen,  showing  to  them  that  a  wrong  of 
ages  is  asked  to  be  righted;  and  as  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  are 
alike  responsible  for  the  wrong  committed,  and  as  I  am  personally  unable  to 
distribute  this  small  work  over  the  States  and  through  your  kingdom,  and 
having  faith  in  your  well  known  philanthrophic  disposition,  I  have  esteemed 
it  possible  you  might  wish  to  lend  your  assistance  in  the  distribution. 

I  shall  feel  proud,  in  the  next  edition,  to  give  recognition  of  any  contri- 
bution that  may  be  made,  or  any  article  that  may  be  prepared,  with  a  view  of 
aiding  the  once  enslaved  Eegro.  I  trust  and  beg  that  your  Majesty  will  take 
time  to  read  the  book  sent  you  before  forming  an  opinion  adversely  to  my 
undertaking.  I  have  spent  thousands  of  dollars  in  this  effort  already,  and 
eight  millions  of  American  negroes  feel  very  grateful  to  me,  and  those  help- 
ing me,  so  that  neither  expense  to  myself  nor  my  country  will  induce  me  to 
abandon  the  great  cause  I  have  voluntarily  espoused. 

A  response  to  my  appeal  from  one  so  good  and  great  as  your  Majesty 
will  be  most  religiously  esteemed. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  most  humbly  and  obediently  yours, 

Walter  R.  Vaughan. 

It  will  readily  appear  to  the  candid  reader  that  the  appeal  to  the 
British  Queen  was  justly  and  fairly  taken,  and  that  a  recognition  of 
the  work  which  the  author  has  espoused  might  reasonably  have 
been  expected.  But  such  has  not  been  the  fact,  her  Majesty  may 
not  have  approved  of  slave  emancipation  within  these  States.  It  is 
surely  true  that  her  people,  of  a  by-gone  era,  enforced  slavery  upon 
the  colonies,  which  then  yielded  ready  recognition  of  the  British 


146 


ADDEKDA. 


Crown  as  the  supreme  head  of  their  established  government.  It 
was  hoped  that  the  reigning  Monarch  of  the  British  Islands  re- 
joiced with  Americans  upon  the  emancipation  of  a  slavery  which 
the  parental  government  had  inflicted  upon  an  unwilling  people. 
But  it  seems  that  the  head  of  the  English  Government  is  now  as 
selfishly  complaisant  of  past  errors  as  her  forefathers  were  when 
they  planted  negro  slavery  upon  the  colonies  of  North  America 
against  the  protest  of  her  colonial  subjects.  When  we  stop  to 
reflect  upon  the  unnatural  and  unchristian  conduct  of  the  English 
rulers  toward  their  Irish  inhabitancy  it  is  sensibly  appreciable  why 
they  should  shut  their  ears  against  a  just  statement  of  their  former 
barbarity  exercised  in  this  land,  and  refuse  to  help  toward  man- 
hood a  race  of  men  they  once  degraded  below  the  brutes  of  the 
swineherd  and  the  wild  beasts  of  ferocious  nature.  It  may  be  surpris- 
ing, but  it  is  nevertheless  true,  that  the  English  Crown  and  the  titled 
nobility  of  that  country  has  never  yet  followed  in  a  train  of  thought 
that  had  its  origin  with  the  democratic  tendency  of  the  United 
States  or  of  any  other  republican  form  of  government.  In  the 
days  of  the  American  rebellion  the  potentates  of  Great  Britain 
would  readily  have  sided  with  the  South  had  it  not  been  that  the 
establishment  of  the  Confederacy  might  have  continued  the  suprem- 
acy of  slavery  upon  American  soil, — an  idea  which  English  lord- 
ship rejected  as  soon  as  the  traffic  in  human  merchandise  was 
made  unpopular,  and  hence  not  profitable  to  British  merchantmen 
previously  engaged  in  the  slave  trade.  When  the  profit  of  stealing 
men  and  woman  from  Africa  and  reducing  them  to  bondage  within 
American  territorial  jurisdiction  ceased  to  be  a  safe  and  prudent 
venture  it  was  quite  easy  for  lordly  nabobism  to  follow  in  the 
footsteps  of  Wilberforce  and  other  friends  of  humanity  who  berated 
the  institution  of  slavery  because  of  its  innate  error  and  not  on 
account  of  methods  of  expediency. 

When  Mason  and  Slidell  were  sent  to  Europe  during  the 
War  of  the  Eebellion,  in  the  hope  of  inducing  such  powerful 
States  as  Great  Britian  and  France  to  give  recognition  to  South- 
ern independence,  it  was  found  by  these  envoys  that  the  fatal 
impediment  in  the  direction  of  a  successful  mission  consisted 
in  the  fact  that  public  sentiment,  gaining  force  gradually  from 
the  masses  to  the  aristocracy,  was  intensely  anti-slavery;  and 
unless  the  peculiar  institution  should  be  immediately  or  gradually 
abolished,  the  hope  of  ultimate  recognition  was  nearly  or  quite 
impossible.  Under  date  of  London,  November  4,  1862,  Mr.  Mason 
informed  Mr.  Judah  P.  Benjamin,  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Con- 
federate Government,  that  he  found  Lord  Palmerston  implacable 
upon  the  subject  of  the  slave  trade  (and  of  course  incidentally  of 
slavery  itself);  and  in  reply  to  a  very  friendly  suggestion  from  that 
statesman  Mr.  Mason  had  made  the  statement:  '^That  this  condi 
tion  of  society  (slavery)  was  one  with  which,  in  our  opinion,  tht 
destinies  of  the  South  were  indissolubly  connected. Other  envoys 
sent  by  the  Confederacy  to  Europe  appear  to  have  encountered  a 
strong  undercurrent  of  anti-slavery  feeling  among  the  masses 
which  was  gradually  felt  in  Government  circles.  Edwin  De  Leon, 
a  man  of  erudition  and  persuasive  logic,  was  forced  to  tell  Mr. 


147 


Benjamin^  in  a  letter  from  Paris,  bearing  date  of  June  19,  18G3, 
that  he  had  encountered  a  sentiment  that  was  impregnable,  and 
this  sentiment  consisted  in  the  expressions  repeated  over  and 
over  again  by  persons  connected  with  the  Government  and  enjoy- 
ing the  confidence  of  the  Emperor — ^  France  can  not  take  the  lead 
in  acknowledging  the  Southern  Confederacy  without  some  promise 
for  prospective  emancipation/"  Further  on^  in  the  same  commu- 
nication, after  detailing  the  opinions  of  many  French  statesmen 
and  scholars,  including  Count  de  Lesseps,  the  wonderful  civil 
engineer  of  the  world,  Mr.  De  Leon  said:  "  It  is  vain  to  tell  them 
(French  scholars  and  statesmen)  how  utterly  impracticable  such  a 
proposition  (slave  emancipation)  must  be,  and  that  Southern  peo- 
ple never  would  consent  to  purchase  recognition  at  the  price  of 
such  a  concession  of  wrong  doing  as  it  would  imply." 

It  is  sad  to  be  obliged  to  antagonize  the  opinion  of  so  eminent 
a  man  as  Edwin  De  Leon,  for  he  w^as  a  great  man,  but  the  truth 
must  be  told  in  the  interest  of  a  work  which  overlaps  all  the 
greatness  of  the  great  w^ork  of  history.  Truth  and  justice  must 
prevail.  At  the  same  time  Mr.  De  Leon  was  doing  his  utmost  to 
sustain  the  tottering  slave  power,  and  while  Slidell  and  Mason  were 
working  with  might  and  main  to  secure  the  recognition  of  Euro- 
pean governments  in  behalf  of  the  seceding  States,  which  sought 
to  establish  a  separate  government  from  that  wrought  in  the  Rev- 
olutionary period,  other  forces  were  at  work  to  circumvent  the 
work  of  the  seceders  and  their  envoys  sent  abroad.  The  anti- 
slavery  sentiments  of  William  Wilberforce  and  those  who  thought 
with  him  that  personal  liberty  was  the  natural  condition  of  all 
mankind  had  taken  deep  root  in  the  feelings  of  statesmen  repre- 
senting the  work  of  civilization  throughout  the  world.  Among 
other  appeals  made  by  Southern  men  to  persons  of  high  renown  in 
Church  and  State  throughout  all  Europe,  it  is  proper  to  say  that 
Jefferson  Davis  addressed  a  letter  directly  to  His  Holiness  Pope 
Pius  IX.,  of  Rome,  in  which  his  intercession  was  sought  through 
the  powerful  ecclesiastical  organization  which  the  Pope  represents 
throughout  the  civilized  and  religious  world.  The  letter  of  Mr. 
Davis  to  His  Holiness  was  presented  through  Mr.  A.  Dudley  Mann, 
who  bore  credentials  from  ^^The  Southern  Independence  Associa- 
tion of  London,"  and  an  address  in  which  the  following  significant 
passage  appeared: 

'^^This  Association  will  also,  in  particular,  steadily  but  kindly 
represent  to  the  Southern  States  that  recognition  by  Europe  must 
necessarily  lead  to  a  revision  of  the  system  of  servile  labor  unhap- 
pily bequeathed  to  them  by  England,  in  accordance  with  the  spirit 
of  the  age,  so  as  to  combine  the  gradual  extinction  of  slavery, 
with  the  preservation  of  property,  the  maintenance  of  the  civil 
polity  of  the  true  civilization  of  the  negro  race." 

The  sentiment  quoted  above  did  not  suit  the  sensibilities  of 
Mr.  Mann,  and  in  communicating  the  address  of  the  Southern 
Independence  Association  to  Mr.  Benjamin,  he  took  occasion  to 
dissent  from  the  idea  of  a  gradual  extinction  of  slavery,"  coupled 
with  a  ^^preservation  of  property,"  and  he  couched  his  expression 
of  dissent  in  these  words: 


148 


ADDEKDA. 


^^It  is  lamentable  to  perceive  that  onr  professed,  and,  as  I  am 
Inclined  to  believe,  well-disposed  friends  have  committed  them- 
selves to  the  keeping  up  of  an  agitation  against  the  cherished 
institution  of  the  States  composing  our  Confederacy,  even  after 
our  recognition/^ 

The  communication  to  Mr.  Benjamin  last  above  referred  to  was 
transmitted  by  Mr.  Mann  from  London  January  29,  1864.  So  it 
appears  that  within  a  little  more  than  a  year  of  the  collapse  of  the 
Confederacy  the  idea  was  still  entertained  in  high  quarters  that  the 
cherished  institution  of  the  States  composing  the  Confederacy" 
might  be  maintained  as  the  chief  corner-stone  of  the  building  of  a 
new  republic.  But  the  persons  to  whom  Southern  agents  made 
their  appeal  did  not  take  kindly  to  that  view.  His  Holiness,  Pope 
Pius  IX.,  while  receiving  Mr.  Davis'  letter  of  appeal  in  kindly 
terms,  took  occasion  to  institute  an  inquiry  whether  it  might  not 
be  judicious  for  the  Confederates  to  consent  to  gradual  emancipa- 
tion.According  to  the  report  of  Special  Envoy  Slidell  at  his  first 
interview  with  the  French  Emperor,  in  July,  1862,  Napoleon  III. 
asked  him  whether  we  anticipated  any  difficulty  from  our 
slaves. ''^ 

So  it  appears,  from  the  most  reliable  data  that  can  be  gathered 
from  authentic  sources,  the  impediment  which  stood  in  the  way  of 
a  successful  establishment  of  the  Southern  Confederacy  upon  a  firm 
and  enduring  basis,  which  would  have  received  the  instant  recog- 
nition of  the  most  powerful  of  European  States,  was  the  existence 
of  the  unnatural  institution  of  human  slavery  as  the  foundation  of 
its  productive  field  of  labor.  In  the  process  of  time  the  men  of  the 
South,  high  in  the  authority  of  the  Confederacy,  came  to  view  the 
possibility  of  slavery  being  the  loadstone  which  would  attract  the 
newly  formed  system  of  government  upon  the  inevitable  rock  of 
failure.  Toward  the  close  of  the  career  of  the  Confederacy  a 
wholesale  emancipation  of  slaves  was  seriously  considered  as  a 
necessity  involving  the  only  hope  of  future  existence  and  recogni- 
tion by  important  European  powers.  It  is  known  that  in  the  last 
days  of  the  Confederacy  Mr.  Duncan  F.  Kenner,  of  New  Orleans, 
was  sent  as  a  special  envoy  to  Europe,  with  possible  authority  of 
giving  a  guarantee  of  emancipation.  He  had  served  in  the  Confed- 
erate Congress,  and  had  become  satisfied  that  '^it  was  impos- 
sible to  prosecute  the  war  to  a  successful  issue  without  a  rec- 
ognition of  the  Confederacy  by  at  least  one  of  the  maritime 
powers  of  western  Europe,  into  the  ports  of  which  the  South- 
ern States  might  carry  their  prizes,  make  repairs,  and  get 
supplies.  He  was  also  satisfied  that  they  would  never  secure  recog- 
nition or  any  substantial  aid  so  long  as  the  foundations  of  their 
projected  new  empire  rested  on  slavery/'  At  least,  Hon.  John 
Bigelow  has  made  this  emphatic  declaration  in  the  columns  of  the 
Century  Magazine.  (See  May  number,  1891.)  Mr.  Kenner  sailed 
from  New  York  in  the  spring  of  1865,  in  a  British  steamer,  hav- 
ing passed  through  the  Confederate  outposts  and  the  Union  lines 
without  his  identity  becoming  known.  He  had  interviews  with 
Lord  Palmerston  in  England,  and  with  the  Emperor  Napoleon  at 
Paris,  to  whom  he  unfolded  his  plans  of  recognition  by  the  British 


ADDENDA. 


149 


and  French  Governments,  upon  emancipation  being  proclaimed  by 
the  President  of  the  Southern  Confederacy.  While  his  negotia- 
tions abroad  were  pending,  intelligence  of  Sherraan^s  successful 
march  to  the  sea,  and  of  the  capitulation  of  Gen.  Joseph  E.  John- 
ston, was  carried  to  Europe,  which  dashed  to  earth  the  last  hope  of 
the  Confederacy.  The  statements  concerning  the  mission  of  Mr. 
Kenner  abroad,  and  of  the  contemplated  plan  of  emancipation  by 
the  South,  have  been  confirmed  in  a  communication  written  by 
Mr.  Ben.  C.  Truman  to  the  New  York  Times  of  July  24,  1890,  in 
which  that  gentleman  credits  the  late  Robert  Toombs,  of  Georgia 
(the  man  once  made  famous  by  his  declaration  that  he  expected  to 
see  the  day  when  he  would  be  able  to  call  the  roll  of  his  slaves 
from  the  monument  on  Bunker  Hill),  with  the  expression  of  his 
belief  that  if  the  South  had  made  the  abolition  of  slavery  a  part 
of  its  policy  it  would  have  had  England  and  France  on  its  side, 
and  the  Confederacy  would  have  succeeded.  There  prevails  also  a 
well  defined  rumor  that  in  the  closing  days  of  the  Confederate 
Congress  at  Eichmond,  a  heated  discussion  respecting  negro  man- 
umission took  place,  growing  out  of  a  communication  submitted 
to  that  body  by  Mr.  Jefferson  Davis.  If  the  rumor  is  authentic 
the  paper  which  gave  rise  to  the  debate  was  probably  connected 
with  the  secret  mission  abroad  of  Mr.  Duncan  F.  Keuner.  But 
the  records  of  the  last  discussions  in  the  Confederate  Congress 
are  imperfect,  and  record  testimony  of  many  events  are  not  now 
available. 

The  fact,  however,  is  not  now  seriously  questioned  that  the 
Southern  people,  or  at  least  those  who  held  high  political  positions, 
had  arrived  at  the  conclusion,  in  the  spring  of  1865,  that  their 
hope  of  independent  governmental  sovereignty  could  only  be 
secured  by  means  of  slavery  emancipation.  With  such  knowledge, 
the  people  of  the  great  North  ought  to  be  impressed  with  a  true 
sensibility  of  the  debt  that  is  due  to  the  old  slaves,  because  of  the 
link  they  formed  in  preventing  a  severance  of  the  States  of  the 
union.  Had  the  point  been  reached  during  the  era  of  hostilities 
when  the  South  would  have  welcomed  the  negroes  of  ante-bellum 
days  to  be  a  free  people,  it  is  probable  that  no  power  on  earth 
could  have  prevented  the  seceding  States  from  the  accomplish- 
ment of  their  political  independence.  In  addition,  then,  to  being 
the  instrumentality  whereby  our  glorious  republic  became,  indeed, 
a  free  people,  no  person  in  all  this  broad  land  being  restrained  of 
personal  liberty,  except  for  the  punishment  of  crime  whereof  the 
offending  party  may  have  been  duly  convicted  in  a  court  of  justice, 
the  negro  race  may  justly  lay  claim  to  the  distinction  of  affording 
the  general  Government  the  means  of  bringing  together  in  the 
family  of  States  all  the  constitutional  elements  of  our  diversified 
nationality.  States  are  no  longer  dissevered  and  belligerent,  but 
all  are  happily  united,  under  one  flag,  in  a  bond  of  amity  and  union 
which  the  combined  armies  and  navies  of  the  world  may  not  pre- 
vail against  with  success.  That  such  a  boon  has  been  brought 
about  through  the  agency  of  negro  freemen  once  held  in  servitude, 
certainly  entitles  that  race  to  a  degree  of  compensation  for  the 


150 


ADDENDA. 


chains  of  slavery  which  they  were  so  recently  obliged  to  endure  in 
pursuance  of  unjust  and  repressive  laws. 

In  seeking  to  interest  persons  of  exalted  stations  in  the  plan  for 
the  amelioration  of  ex-slaves  the  work  has  been  pursued  in  a  way 
to  include  men  of  financial  standing  and  business  influence,  within 
the  scope  of  those  who  might  feel  generously  inclined  to  favor  a 
noble  and  praiseworthy  undertaking.  While  appeals  have  been 
made  abroad,  the  general  line  of  communication  has  been  confined 
to  men  and  women  of  well  known  generosity  within  the  United 
States.  In  the  main,  responses  to  appeals  and  personal  solicita- 
tion have  not  lent  that  degree  of  encouragement  which  was  hoped 
for  and  desired.  But  no  grand  aim  in  life  should  be  silenced 
because  first  advances  do  not  meet  with  encouragement.  In  fact, 
rebuffs  ought,  generally,  to  excite  fresh  effort  and  persistent  appli- 
cation, in  order  that  public  sympathy  and  attention  may  be 
finally  aroused.  Among  those  who  were  solicited  to  give  a  candid 
consideration,  and,  possibly,  personal  aid,  to  the  advancement  of 
Vaughan's  Freedmen's  pension  bill  and  appeal,  it  may  be  proper 
to  mention  the  case  of  the  great  banker  and  financier,  Henry 
Clews,  because  the  note  of  Mr.  Clews  brings  into  view  a  line  of 
opposition  to  the  work  in  hand  which  must  be  calmly  and  consid- 
erately combatted,  or  it  will  open  the  way  for  a  strong  prejudice 
which  ought  not  to  prevail  in  the  prosecution  of  any  generous  and 
benevolent  object  having  in  view  the  general  advancement  of  the 
human  race.  Prejudice  is  not  easily  overcome.  In  handing  Mr. 
Clews  a  copy  of  the  first  edition  of  this  little  book  he,  with  others, 
was  addressed  as  follows: 

Knowing  your  philanthropy  and  reputation  for  justice  in 
every  movement  that  embraces  humanity,  I  esteemed  it  possible 
that  you  might  feel  inclined  to  aid  in  the  distribution  of  an  argu- 
ment solely  designed  in  the  interest  of  humanity. 

It  will  be  a  pleasure  to  acknowledge  in  the  next  edition  any 
funds  or  articles  designed  to  aid  me  in  my  work  for  the  negro.  I 
trust  and  beg  that  you  will  read  the  book  mailed  to  your  address 
by  me  before  coming  to  a  conclusion  adversely  to  my  undertaking. 
I  have  spent  thousands  of  dollars  in  the  effort  to  do  justice  to  a  class 
of  our  people  embracing  eight  millions  of  our  population.  These 
people  feel  grateful  to  me  for  the  effort  already  made,  but  the 
mass  of  them  are  powerless  to  aid  in  a  work  in  which  they  have  an 
abiding  interest .  Neither  cost  to  myself  or  the  Government  will 
induce  me  to  abandon  a  just  cause.  If  you  feel  inclined  to  assist 
in  a  worthy  undertaking  your  kindly  aid  will  be  gratefully  appre- 
ciated and  acknowledged. 

A  reply  to  my  letter  from  a  person  known  to  entertain  the 
largest  and  most  liberal  sentiments  of  humanity  will  be  thankfully 
acknowledged  by  Yours  very  truly, 

W.  E.  Vaughan." 
In  response  to  the  foregoing  appeal  Mr.  Clews  kindly  gave  the 
matter  in  hand  his  early  attention,  though  not  indorsing  the  effort 
in  view,  as  may  be  seen  by  the  full  text  of  his  letter,  which  is  given 
below: 


ADDEJ^DA. 


151 


Banking  House  of  Henry  Clews  &  Co.,  / 
New  York,  January  3,  1891.  f 

W.  R.  Vaughan,  Esq.,  Omaha,  Neh. 

Dear  Sir:  I  have  your  favor  of  the  27th  ult.,  also  the  pamphlet  men- 
tioned. It  will  give  me  pleasure  to  read  it,  I  am  sure.  I  do  not  think,  how. 
ever,  I  can  be  induced  to  favor  the  scheme  proposed,  for  the  reason  that  the 
pensions  now  paid  by  the  Government  reach  |120,000,000  per  annum — a  sum 
entirely  too  large  for  the  good  ©f  the  country,  and  it  certainly  does  not  admit 
of  being  increased  for  any  purpose  whatsoever.  Much  obliged  to  you  for 
thinking  of  me.  Yours  very  truly, 

Henry  Clews. 

The  view  taken  by  Mr.  Clews  brings  up  a  question  that  is  just 
now  provoking  a  great  deal  of  attention  in  the  halls  of  legislation, 
in  the  columns  of  the  public  press,  and  in  the  ordinary  channels  of 
conversation  and  discussion  running  through  all  the  avenues  of 
society.  The  pension  list  as  now  administered  is  truly  a  plague 
spot  in  the  affairs  of  Cxovernment,  for  the  reason  that  millions  of 
money  are  annually  distributed  in  quarters  where  no  shadow  of 
right  exists,  while  many  meritorious  claimants  are  awaiting  the 
adjudication  of  cases  that  have  been  delayed  months  and  years 
without  sense  or  reason.  A  complete  review  of  the  affairs  of  the 
pension  office  is  sadly  needed,  and  it  will  certainly  open  a  field  for 
reform  that  will  tax  the  energy  and  ability  of  cautious  statesmen. 
But  because  military  pensions  have  become  a  source  of  great  evil 
and  are  calling  aloud  for  the  work  of  the  true  reformer  it  does  not 
follow  that  the  Government  should  hesitate  to  do  ample  justice  to 
its  subjects  which  were  held  in  heartless  bondage  for  a  long,  dark 
period  of  years,  through  no  fault  of  their  own  and  by  means  of 
a  false  and  vicious  system  of  political  economy.  A  solvent  debtor 
in  private  life  could  hardly  expect  immunity  against  the  payment 
of  a  fair  and  honest  claim  against  him  on  the  ground  that  he  had 
paid  a  dozen  other  claims  which  were  not  justly  chargeable  against 
him.  Neither  can  a  great  Government  refuse  to  pay  an  honest 
indemnity  due  to  old  slaves  on  the  ground  that  an  exorbitant  sum 
is  now  annually  exacted  for  military  pensions,  a  part  of  Avhich  may 
be  extortionate  and  improper. 

At  a  recent  meeting  of  school  teachers  held  in  an  Eastern  State 
the  subject  was  discussed  of  providing  a  State  pension  for  persons 
who  have  devoted  their  lives  to  the  work  of  education,  after  they 
may  have  severally  served  thirty  years  in  the  educational  field. 
The  proposition  has  given  rise  to  some  newspaper  comment  and 
the  general  tenor  of  the  view  taken  by  the  public  press  has  not 
been  favorable  to  the  policy  proposed  to  be  established.  The 
adverse  argument  has  covered  a  wide  range,  but  the  substantial 
reasons  assigned  in  antagonism  to  the  innovation  have  been  that 
teachers  have  usually  received  good  rates  of  compensation  for 
their  services,  and  have  had  opportunities  to  accumulate  property 
sufficient  to  provide  for  their  wants  in  declining  years  above  that 
garnered  in  other  useful  occupations.  There  is  no  more  reason 
why  an  aged  and  faithful  teacher  should  be  supported  at  public 
expense  in  old  age,  under  authority  of  law,  than  that  similar  pro- 
vision should  be  made  for  aged  clergymen,  phj^sicians,  mechanics 
or  tillers  of  the  soil  whose  labors  in  life  have  redounded  to  the 


152 


ADDENDA. 


general  welfare  as  well  as  to  their  personal  profit.  It  was  possibly 
an  error  of  opinion  that  primarily  suggested  the  expediency  of 
retiring  judges  of  the  Federal  courts,  after  they  arrived  at  a  cer- 
tain mature  age  and  had  served  a  stipulated  term  upon  the  bench, 
upon  an  annuity  during  the  residue  of  their  natural  lives.  The 
same  suggestion  may  be  indulged  touching  the  provision  which 
Congress  has  made  for  the  benefit  of  retired  officers  of  the  Federal 
army,  and  concerning  the  pensional  provision  fixed  by  law  for  the 
comfort  of  widows  of  certain  distinguished  soldiers  and  civilians. 
While  the  aggregate  amount  so  paid  annually  is  comparatively 
unimportant,  it  may  be  feared  that  the  way  has  been  prepared  for 
m  ikiag  our  G-overnmeiit  some  day  a  vast  eleemosynary  institution, 
a  feature  of  which  will  be  the  voting  of  prodigious  sums  of  money 
into  the  pockets  of  persons  who  have  managed  to  place  themselves 
in  the  position  of  retainers  of  the  nation. 

This  slight  digression  from  the  direct  advocacy  of  the  Vaughan 
Freedmen's  Pension  Bill  has  not  been  indulged  in  because  of  a 
design  to  antagonize  any  class  of  pensions  which  Congress  may  feel 
inclined  to  enact  into  statutory  form,  but  with  a  view  of  calling  at- 
tention to  the  fact  that  all  kinds  of  pensions  which  have  heretofore 
been  allowed  to  public  defenders,  or  to  eminent  citizens  of  the  coun- 
try,  have  consisted  in  gratuities  which  the  pleasure  of  Congress  has 
voted  to  persons  worthy  of  special  assistance  on  account  of  services 
rendered  to  the  Government  and  to  the  people,  either  in  times  of 
military  carnage  or  in  the  highest  lines  of  civic  eminence.  The 
case  of  the  negroes  who  have  been  relieved  from  unwilling  servi- 
tude is  vastly  different  from  soldiers  or  statesmen  who  have 
performed  meritorious  service  in  the  field  or  in  civil  life.  The 
negro  claim  is  one  of  indemnity  for  injuries  suffered,  while  the 
others  have  been  granted  special  compensation  for  duties  imposed 
and  properly  performed.  Perhaps  the  great  claim  now  asserted  in 
behalf  of  the  negro  race  ought  not  to  liave  been  denominated  a 
pension.  It  has  been  so  called  because  all  classes  of  direct  assist- 
ance voted  by  the  representatives  of  the  Government,  to  be  paid 
in  monthly,  annual  or  periodical  sums  of  money,  have  been 
denominated  pensions  in  common  parlance.  But  the  claim  now 
pressed  is  a  bounden  duty  which  the  Government  owes,  and  in 
providing  for  its  liquidation  the  Congress  is  not  asked  to  grant 
a  gratuity  but  to  pay  a  debt.  No  volume  of  money  that  might  be 
poured  out  at  the  feet  of  the  old  slaves  would  compensate  the 
negro  race  for  the  deep  wrong  they  have  endured.  In  making  a 
reasonable  and  prudent  demand,  graduated  so  that  those  who 
endured  the  heat  and  burden  of  the  dominion  of  slavery  may  be  fairly 
fed  and  clothed  in  their  declining  years,  while  the  young  genera- 
tion will  obtain  a  recognition  that  will  remind  them  of  the  horrors 
which  their  parents  suffered;  the  best  method  is  presented  con- 
sistent with  the  ability  of  the  Government  to  discharge  its  duty 
and  one  which  the  old  slave  will  accept  with  patient  feeling  and 
thankful  heart. 


ADDENDA.  153 

In  closing  this  branch  of  appeal  it  may  be  right  to  ask  whether  the  liberty 
of  the  negro  race,  enjoyed  by  them  in  the  United  States  for  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  has  demonstrated  the  race  to  merit  the  requiting  of  the 
great  debt  which  our  Government  owes  to  them?  This  interrogation  may  be 
suitably  answered  by  the  reproduction  of  part  of  an  able  communication 
found  in  the  columns  of  the  Christian  Recorder,  published  at  631  Pine 
street,  Philadelphia,  April  30,  1891,  and  written  by  General  J.  S.  Clarkson, 
late  assistant  Postmaster  General,  and  one  of  the  aolest  journalists  to  be 
found  in  the  United  States.  The  article  appears  to  have  been  a  selection  from 
another  newspaper,  but  it  is  made  use  of,  partially,  in  the  form  which  the 
Recorder  presents  it,  as  follows : 

"  One  of  the  best  and  most  encouraging  signs,  to  me,  for  the  final  vindica- 
tion and  complete  liberty  of  the  colored  people  is  the  mighty  strength  in 
which  they  are  arising,  not  only  to  protect  themselves  in  all  their  rights,  but 
to  put  out  their  hands  in  more  than  human  and  almost  divine  sympathy 
for  human  suffering  and  distress  wherever  it  exists. 

"  The  black  race  is  the  sympathetic  race  of  the  world.  It  never  sees  sor- 
row without  seeming  to  share  in  it.  It  never  sees  distress  without  wanting 
to  go  to  its  help.  It  never  sees  tyranny  without  wanting  to  fight  it.  Its 
heart  is  broad  and  warm,  and  keenly  sensitive  to  everything  needing  succor 
or  sympathy.    .    .  . 

"I  look  with  admiration  upon  a  race  rising  out  of  the  dust  and  coming  up 
to  the  average  intelligence  of  the  black  people  of  America  to-day.  Recent 
visits  to  the  South,  and  close  and  careful  examination  have  shown  me  that 
there  are  very  few  colored  people  under  30  years  of  age  who  can  not  read  and 
write.  I  found  the  old  people,  the  negroes  of  war  days,  filled  with  philosophy 
and  kindness,  holding  no  resentment  to  the  South  for  the  days  of  slavery. 

.  .  .  I  saw,  in  scores  of  cabins,  many  young  people  learning  to  read 
from  the  Bible. 

"  The  black  race  is  no  more  capable  of  being  suppressed  and  no  more  in 
danger  of  being  degraded  back  into  slavery,  or  a  servile  peasantry,  than  were 
the  American  people  in  the  Revolution  ;  and  to-day  the  blacks  of  America 
twice  outnumber  the  American  people  who  fought  the  War  of  the  Revolution. 
Man  may  delay  the  fulfillment  of  human  nature  or  divine  purpose  of  Gov- 
ernment, but  he  can  not  for  very  long.  The  progress  of  the  black  race  in 
America  may  be  a  little  delayed  but  it  can  never  be  stopped. 

"  In  the  humanity  of  a  race  there  is  something  higher  than  politics.  All 
that  is  noble  in  American  citizenship,  and  all  that  is  sweet  aad  dear  in  human 
rights,  are  involved  in  it." 

It  is  in  behalf  of  those  citizens  who  have  endured  the  bitterest  wrongs  of 
oppression  that  an  appeal  is  now  made,  asking  that  the  right  thinking  people 
of  every  race  will  do  a  reasonable  part  towards  lifting  the  stain  of  injustice 
from  the  escutcheon  of  the  American  name  and  character. 

A  SERIOUS  VIEW. 

The  author  of  this  work  is  in  no  sense  an  alarmist,  and  in  the  propagation 
of  a  meritorious  work  it  is  important  that  reason,  rather  than  impulse,  should 
have  sway  under  any  and  all  circumstances.  But  the  white  citizens  of  the 
United  States  ought  not  to  shut  their  eyes  to  the  fact  that  the  black  race 
within  these  States  is  multiplying  more  rapidly,  in  a  relative  sense,  than  the 
white  race.  When  the  freedom  of  the  manumitted  slaves  was  confirmed  by 
an  amendment  to  the  Federal  Constitution  in  1865,  the  number  so  set  at  liberty 
was  a  fraction  below  5,000,000  people.  The  number  of  free  blacks  in  all  the 
States  prior  to  emancipation  was  a  very  small  percentage  of  the  entire  race  in 
this  country.  After  the  lapse  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  the  census  of  last 
year  shows,  or  will  show  when  complete  in  detail,  that  the  number  of 
negroes  exceeds  eight  millions  of  people.  Here  is  a  race  increase  of  quite  50 
per  cent,  in  two  and  one-half  decades,  while  the  total  increase  of  population 
has  not  increased  more  than  25  per  cent.  It  follows  that  the  blacks  of  our 
land  are  generating  their  species  with  double  the  rapidity  that  the  whites  are 
doing.  Under  such  conditions  it  becomes  important  that  future  harmony 
between  the  races  shall  be  supported  and  sustained  by  a  generous  and  humane 
treatment  while  the  colored  people  constitute  the  weaker  and  more  dependent 
race. 


154 


In  order  that  the  idea  here  advanced  may  be  the  better  appreciated,  let  us 
have  reference  to  a  few  official  tigures.  The  census  of  1870  showed  the  total 
number  of  the  white  population  of  all  the  States  and  Territories  to  be  33,589,377 
souls.  In  1880  this  white  population  had  increased  to  43,402,970  persons',  or 
an  augmentation  of  less  than  thirty  per  cent.  A  complete  exhibit  of  the  cen- 
sus of  1890  will  demonstrate  that  the  relative  increase  of  the  white  population 
has  materially  declined. 

Now,  contrast  this  race  exhibit  by  that  made  by  the  negro  population.  In 
1870  there  were  4,880,009  people  of  color  in  all  the  States  and  Territories.  In 
1880  the  negro  citizenship  of  our  country  had  increased  to  6,580,793  souls,  or 
a  rate  of  thirty-five  per  cent.  Thus  the  relative  increase  of  blacks  was  five 
per  cent,  greater  on  the  part  of  blacks  than  whites.  In  the  last  ten  years  this 
ratio  has  been  vastly  accelerated  in  favor  of  the  negro  population. 

The  total  population  of  eight  States,  whites  and  blacks,  in  1890,  contrasted 
with  1880,  is  as  follow^s  : 

1890.  1880. 

Alabama    1,513,017  1,263,288 

Florida   39 ',422  269,690 

Georg-la   1 ,837,353  1,542,029 

Louisiana   1,118,587  938,609 

Mississippi  -   1,289,600  1,129,689 

North  Carolina  »   1,617,947  1,398,5.9 

South  Carolina  ...    1,161 ,149  995,437 

Virginia       1,655,980  1,512,474 

Total   10,575,055  9,048,735 

It  will  be  observed  that  the  total  population  of  the  eight  States  above 
noted  increased  a  little  less  than  seventeen  per  cent,  in  ten  years.  The  States 
constitute  that  portion  of  the  South  where  the  negro  population  has  its  great- 
est strength.  In  three  of  the  States  the  negro  is  in  a  tiumerical  majority.  In 
those  States  statistics  show  that  his  relative  increase  between  1870  and  1880 
was  vastly  greater  than  the  white  increase.  The  small  percentage  of  total 
increase  in  the  last  ten  years  leaves  a  natural  deduction  that  the  black  man 
has  had  the  greater  part  of  the  added  population,  which  has  been  the  natural 
production  of  his  species,  while  the  white  race  has  had  the  advantage  of  a 
large  northern  and  foreign  immigration. 

The  study  of  this  branch  of  a  scientific  question  is  of  vital  interest,  for  it 
leads  to  the  conclusion  that  in  the  warm  latitude  of  the  Gulf  States  the  negroes 
will  outgrow  the  white  people  with  surprising  strides.  What,  then,  shall  be 
lone  to  keep  the  races  in  harmony  ?  Manifestly  the  schewe  of  an  enforced 
exodus  of  the  negroes  to  a  foreign  clime  is  too  chimeri^uJ  be  seriously  con- 
sidered. Moreover,  the  South  needs  the  negro  labo.,  ^iid  can  have  it  in  the 
future  as  in  the  past.  But  to  prevent  friction  between  the  races  a  measure  of 
such  justice  should  be  meted  out  to  the  negro  as  will  satisfy  him  that  he  is 
among  his  friends.  The  Vaughan  Pension  Bill  is  the  one  above  all  others  that 
will  produce  harmony  of  sentiment.  It  is  not  in  force  laws,  nor  in  election 
excitement,  nor  in  any  measure  that  will  strain  the  relations  between  the 
whiles  and  blacks,  that  will  produce  perfect  contentment  and  good  will.  Let 
justice  and  right  be  done  and  concord  will  prevail  The  Vaughan  Pension 
Bill  is  both  just  and  right. 

A  SOUTHERN  VIEW. 

The  cartoon  presented  on  the  first  page  (or  cover)  is  intended  to  delineate 
an  idea.  Prior  to  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  a  considerable  preponderance  of 
those  articles  of  export  which  enabled  the  people  of  the  United  States  to 
maintain  a  valuable  trade  with  foreign  nations  were  articles  of  Southern  pro- 
duction and  were  the  fruits  of  slave  labor.  The  cotton,  the  tobacco,  the  rice 
and  very  many  lesser  articles  raised  from  the  soil,  constituted  such  an  import- 
ant part  of  American  exports,  that  without  them  a  system  of  exchanges  could 
not  have  been  maintained  abroad,  and  those  foreign  wares  upon  which  our 
Government  revenue  was  raised  would  have  sought  other  markets  instead  of 
coming  to  ours.  But  the  vessels  laden  with  foreign  goods  which  came 
hither,  induced  by  the  rich  fruits  of  Southern  plantations,  enabled  our  Fed- 
eral Go"^ernmant  to  levy  a  moderate  tariff  and  thus  fill  the  coffers  of  the 
nation  with  abundant  revenues.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  slave 
labor  of  Southern  plantations  provided  the  maximum  portion  of  the  revenue 


ADDENDA. 


155 


which  has  accomplished  the  vast  work  which  the  Government  at  TTashing- 
ton  has  carried  forward  in  more  than  a  century  of  its  existence. 

After  three-C[uarters  of  a  century  of  raising  revenue  on  the  production  of 
slave  labor,  thewar  came  and  the  slave  went  free.  One  of  the  consequences 
of  that  war  is  an  enormous  pension  list,  of  more  than  $130,000,000  annually, 
not  one  dollar  of  which  goes  f:o  a  soldier  who  fought  under  the  banner  of  the 
South.  But  the  South  is  taxed  alike  with  the  ZS  orth  to  pay  that  immense 
sum.  3Ioreover,  the  South  is  now  compelled  to  maintain  those  old  and 
decrepid  negroes  who  have  been  freed  in  their  midst,  as  well  as  to  do  its  full 
share  in  proviiiing  pensions  for  the  sick  and  wounded  men  at  the  Xorth 
whose  services  in  the  Union  ranks  made  the  slave  a  free  man.  The  passage 
of  the  Vaughan  measure  would  relieve  the  wants  of  the  freedmen,  and  the 
money  so  distributed  would  do  much  toward  enriching  the  Southern  section. 
All  classes  would  be  benefited  by  the  passage  of  ^a  tardy  act  of  justice 
which  would  liberate  many  an  aged  negro  "from  Southern  almshouses, 
enabling  them  to  live  in  comfort,  and  at  the  same  time  the  taxpayers  would 
be  relieved  from  the  necessity  of  contributing  to  their  support. 

The  artist  has  illustrated  as  best  he  could'the  old  negro  raising  the  crops 
out  of  which  the  Government  derived  her  revenue,  and  then  turnins;  him  out 
to  starve  in  his  old  age,  and  forcing  him  to  become  a  burden  upon  the  tax- 
payers, who  are  also  faxed  to  support  the  men  of  the  North  suffering  from 
wounds  and  diseases  contracted  in  setting  the  negroes  free.  The  picture  is  a 
peculiar  one,  but  it  goes  to  the  heart  of  Ihe  que'stion  of  doing  justice  to  the 
slaves  of  olden  days. 

LABORS  OF  THE  ArTHOR. 

During  the  months  of  April  and  May,  1S91,  the  writer  visited  Chicago  and 
other  cities  with  a  view  of  conferring  with  intelligent  citizens  touching  the 
spirit  of  the  proposed  Old  Slave  Pension  Law,  and  particularly  with  a  desire 
and  purpose  of  learning  how  the  proposition  to  grant  pensions  to  former 
slaves  would  be  received  among  thinking  and  educated  men.  At  the  begin- 
ning it  was  difficult  to  get  the  attention  of  the  best  elements  of  either  white  or 
black  people.  Persistence,  however,  wrought  wonders,  and  the  result  was 
one  meeting  for  public  discussion.  The  attendance  was  not  great,  but  it  con- 
sisted of  thinking  people.  The  seed  of  a  great  idea  was  planted  and  it  soon 
produced  fruit.    As  the  immortal  Bryant  wrote: 

"  Truth  crushed  to  earth  will  rise  again  : 
The  eternal  years  of  God  are  hers." 

The  prophetic  words  of  poesy  appeared  to  be  true  in  this  instance,  for  the 
result  of  the  first  public  discussion  was  an  enthusiastic  audience,  assembled 
April  26.  1S91,  in  Lincoln  Hall,  at  the  request  of  Dr.  J.  H.  Magee,  the  cult- 
ured and  able  editor  of  the  Chicago  w-otherliood,  and  other  able  representa- 
tives of  the  colored  race,  at  which  a  fair  percentage  of  white  persons  were 
present,  Including  several  representatives  of  the  Chicago  press.  Of  course 
W.  R.  Vaughan,  the  author,  made  the  prinripal  address,  explaining  and 
exp">unling  his  theories;  but  there  was  other  speaking,  and  the  result  of  the 
meeting  was  a  commendable  understanding  of  the  broad  purpose  which  the 
author  has  in  view,  and  a  spirit  of  determination  manifested  to  give  the  theory 
of  ex-slave  pension  not  only  a  fair  trial  but  a  courageous  support  before  the 
people  and  in  the  halls  of  Congress.  As  a  fair  expression  of  the  Lincoln 
Hall  meeting,  the  following  report  is  extracted  from  the  columns  of  the  Chi- 
cago I'lf^y'-Oceo.n  of  Monday  morning,  April  27,  1S9L  Other  papers  of  the 
citv — most,  if  not  all.  of  them — gave  elaborate  reports  of  the  meeting  and 
couched  their  statements  in  temperate,  if  not  decidedly  in  friendly  terms. 
But  the  report  of  the  Inter-Ocfan  will  give  a  fair  idea  of  what  was  done  and 
said,  and  attention  is  therefore  asked  to  it: 

"  You  can't  elevate  your  race  so  long  as  you  feel  that  you  owe  somebody, 
when  they  really  owe  you  something.'" 

This  was  the  keynote  of  a  talk  that  Mr.  TT.  R.  Yaughan,  of  Omaha,  made 
to  an  audience  of  colored  people  at  Lincoln  Hall,  on  Thirty-first  street,  last 
night.  It  was  at  the  evening  services  cf  Bethel  A.  M.  E.'Church,  and  Mr. 
Yaughan's  speech  came  in  place  of  the  sermon.  The  Omaha  man  is  the 
author  of  a  bill  for  pensioning  the  ex-slaves.  It  w-as  introduced  into  Congress 
by  Representative  Cornell,  of  Nebraska,  and  has  passed  its  second  reading, 


156 


ADDEJS^DA. 


It  has  been  a  pet  project  of  Mr.  Vaughan's  for  years,  but  his  views  have  not 
before  been  aired  in  this  city. 

He  said  down  South  are  4,000,000  of  ex-slaves,  practically  paupers,  and 
made  so  by  slavery,  which  he  holds  is  a  crime  of  the  Government  which 
should  now  be  atoned  for.  He  disclaimed  any  purpose  in  his  endeavors  for 
the  negro  other  than  simple  philanthropy.  He  said  he  had  already  spent  a 
great  deal  of  money  in  the  cause. 

"  If  Chicago  starts  the  ball  rolling,"  he  said,  "it  will  never  stop.  I  pro- 
pose going  to  England  later,  for  she,  too,  owes  her  part.  I  mean,  also,  to  go 
all  through  the  South." 

"If  it  had  not  been  for  the  colored  man  the  war  would  be  going  on  yet," 
he  continued.  "The  negro  race  don't  owe  the  white  race  anything;  the 
world  owes  the  negro  race  a  great  deal.  This  Government  has  never  done 
anything  for  the  negro  except  what  it  had  to.  As  long  as  he  keeps  quiet  it 
will  not  either.  The  Sioux  is  treated  better  because  he  has  kicked.  You  have 
got  to  stop  paying  respect  to  any  two  or  three  men — Douglas  or  anybody 
else — until  they  get  down  to  your  level.  There  are  9,000,000  negroes  in  this 
country,  and  if  they  stick  together  they  can  dictate  to  all  political  parties. 
Stand  by  yourselves  and  the  nation  will  tremble." 

The  speaker  read  a  number  of  letters  from  statesmen  and  bankers.  They 
rejected  the  scheme  or  ignored  it,  and  he  scored  them  roundly. 

There  was  a  large  audience  present,  and  it  grew  very  enthusiastic  under 
the  spell  of  Mr.  Vaughan's  earnest  words.  Resolutions  were  adopted, reading 
as  follows: 

Whereas,  The  Hon.  W.  R.  Vau^han  has  devoted  many  years  to  the  subject  of 
pensioning  the  old  slaves  of  the  South,  and  has  prepared  and  had  a  bill  introduced  in 
Cong-ress  that  has  passed  to  a  sec  nd  reading-  (House  bill  No.  11,119,  dated  June  24, 1890), 
and  as  this  subject  is  of  importance  to  9,000,000  of  colored  people  and  some  50,000,000  of 
whites  in  the  United  States,  and  as  Mayor  Vaughan  has  written  a  book,  explaining  his 
bill  and  the  wrongs  of  the  colored  people,  for  circulation,  having  spent  thousands  of 
dollars  personally  in  his  laudable  imdertaking,  and  as  he  is  the  first  white  man  to  ask 
or  demand  a  pension  for  the  former  slaves  of  the  United  States,  therefore  be  it 

Resolved,  That  we,  the  Afro- American  tax-payers  and  voters  of  Chicago,  in  con- 
vention now  assembled  at  Lincoln  Hall,  representing  a  population  of  nearly  30,000 
Afro-Americans,  believing,  as  we  do,  that  the  work  undertaken  by  Mr.  Vaughan  is 
one  of  justice  and  right,  do  hereby  pledge  him  our  earnest  co-operation  and  encour- 
agement, and  we  do  hereby  promise  him,  ourselves  and  our  thousands  of  brethren,  for 
whom  Mr.  Vaughan  has  been  and  is  philanthropically  w(>rking,  that  we  will  support 
the  candidate  for  political  trust  who  is  favorable  to  the  pensioning  of  the  former 
slaves  of  the  United  States,  and  be  it  further 

Resolved,  That  we  at  once  organize  a  "Vaughan  ex-Slave  Pension  Club"  for  the 
purpose  of  rendering  all  possible  aid  in  securing  equity  for  America's  former  slaves, 
and  that  we  call  on  the  Afro- Americans,  throughout  the  United  States  to  join  with  us 
in  similar  resolutions  and  organizations,  and  we  trust  and  pray  that  the  national  dis- 
grace partly  wiped  out  may  be  absolutely  obliterated  and  a  great  wrong  righted. 
Beit 

Resolved,  That  the  chair  appoint  a  committee  to  draft  on  parchment  these  resolu- 
tions, having  the  same  signed  by  the  president  and  secretary  of  this  meeting,  and  that 
they  be  presented  to  the  Hon.  W.  R.  Vaughan,  our  friend,  and  that  a  copy  of  the  same 
be  furnished  to  the  press  of  Chicago  and  the  Afro -American  papers  of  the  United 
States. 

It  would  be  improper  not  to  say  that  the  resolutions  above  printed  were 
read  before  the  Lincoln  Hall  meeting  by  Dr.  Magee,  of  the  Brotherhood,  an 
able  newspaper  devoted  to  the  interest  of  the  negro  race,  in  a  clear  voice, 
which  manifested  deep  and  manly  sensibility.  The  reading  called  forth  a 
storm  of  applauee  which  clearly  evinced  the  feeling  and  sentiment  of  the 
large  audience. 

The  effect  of  the  first  address  .in  behalf  of  the  negro  pension  was  so 
marked  as  to  secure  an  invitation  for  ex-Mayor  Vaughan  to  address  another 
meeting  ;  and  Dr.  Magee,  assisted  by  other  prominent  citizens,  arranged  with 
the  pastor  of  the  Washington  Chapel  (Rev.  G,  W.  Gaines,  formerly  a  Ken- 
tucky slave,  is  the  pastor,  and  he  is  also  a  finished  gentleman  and  an  able  man) 
for  Mr.  Vaughan  to  speak  at  the  chapel.  In  communicating  the  arrangement 
Dr.  Magee  was  pleased  to  indulge  in  some  sentiments  which  evince  the  deep- 
seated  reverence  the  negroes,  as  a  class,  entertain  towards  one  who  has  sought 
to  befriend  and  elevate  their  race  ;  and,  illustrative  of  their  feeling,  the  fol- 
lowing extract  from  Dr.  Magee's  note  is  inserted ; 


ADDEiq^DA. 


157 


Hon.  W.  R.  Vattghan,  Richelieu  Hotel. 

My  Dear  Friend :  *  *  *  A  number  of  colored  men  expressed  a  desire  to 
call  on  you  Friday  noon.  Ii'  you  can  arrange  to  meet  us  I  will  notify  them  of  the  time 
and  place  you  may  suggest.  The  people  are  delighted  with  your  plans,  and,  like  the 
people  in  the  days  of  Christ,  they  exclaim,  "Sirs,  we  would  see  Jesus."  Paraphrase 
the  sentence  and  it  would  read,  "  We  want  to  see  this  good  man,  Vaughan."  Let  me 
hear  from  you  at  your  earliest  convenience. 

Yours  respectfully,  J.  H.  Magee. 

Complying  with  the  request  made,  Mr.  Vaughan  suggested  parlor  "G,"  of 
the  Richelieu  Hotel,  as  the  place  to  meet  his  colored  friends,  naming  date  and 
1  o'clock  p.  M.  for  the  meeting.  It  was  a  satisfactory  union  of  men  of  two 
races,  united  in  an  earnest  endeavor  to  accomplish  a  good  work.  The  inter- 
view was  very  satisfactory,  and  gave  promise  of  good  results  in  the  near 
future. 

The  meeting  at  the  church  of  the  G.  W.  Gaines  was  all  that  could  have 
been  desired ,  and  on  that  occasion  the  foundation  of  a  mighty  undertaking 
was  mapped  out  in  a  way  that  has  given  a  great  cause  good  promise  of  suc- 
cessful fulfillment.  The  report  of  this  meeting,  given  below,  is  also  extracted 
from  the  columns  of  the  Chicago  Inter-Ocean.    That  paper  said  : 

W.  R.  Vaughan,  of  Omaha,  Neb.,  lectured  last  night  to  a  large  audience 
of  colored  people  at  Washington  Chapel,  on  Dearborn  street,  near  Twenty- 
ninth,  on  the  ex-slave  pension  law  which  is  before  Congress.  This  is  the  second 
speech  Mr.  Vaughan  has  delivered  on  this  subject — both  to  Chicago  audiences. 

He  first  took  an  interest  in  the  pensioning  of  all  ex-slaves  in  1870,  when  he 
visited  his  dying  father  in  Alabama,  and  while  passing  through  Mississippi 
saw  old  and  feeble  colored  men  kicked  and  cuffed  about  by  railroad  officials 
because  they  were  unable  to  pay  their  fare. 

Up  to  this  time  Mr.  Vaughan  says  he  has  spent  $12,000  in  distributing 
pamphlets  on  the  subject,  and  he  does  not  intend  to  rest  until  his  object 
is  accomplished.  He  is  the  author  of  the  bill,  aL'\  he  is  more  than  assured  of 
its  passage  and  its  becoming  a  law.  After  lea\:ng  Chicago  he  will  visit  the 
principal  cities  all  over  the  country,  where  he  will  deliver  speeches  and 
exhort  the  people  to  interest  themselves  in  the  cause. 

"  I  would  feel  guilty,  as  an  American  citizen,  until  the  ex  slaves  have  been 
given  only  what  is  their  just  due,"  he  said.  "  I  plead  not  only  for  the  old 
slaves,  but  for  the  young  ones  as  well,  who  were  placed  in  bondage  when  all 
their  property  was  surrendered  to  the  Government,  and  they  have  had  to  toil 
like  dogs  to  feed  their  old  gray-haired  parents." 

These  sentiments,  coming  from  such  a  man'as  Mr.  Vaughan,  sound  strange. 
He  is  a  Southerner  and  a  Democrat.  His  father  and  uncles  were  all  large 
slave  owners.  *   *  * 

He  went  on  to  show  why  this  debt  to  the  colored  people  is  a  genuine  debt, 
and  how  by  organizing  they  can  compel  tne  Government  to  recognize  their 
claims  and  pay  them  a  pension,  which  would  amount  to  but  a  small  portion 
of  what  they  have  lost.  "  •  1'  we  do  not  settle  this  question  now  it  will  be 
settled  by  our  children's  children,  and  in  a  very  forcible  manner,  when  the 
colored  people  will  greatly  outnumber  the  whites.  Besides,  the  more  intelli- 
gent the  negroes  become,  the  more  they  hate  the  whites.  Why  is  this  so? 
Because  they  see  how  unjustly  they  are  treated,  while  the  treacherous  and 
uneducated  Indian  is  encouraged  to  murder  by  being  paid  and  humored  to 
grow  lazy  and  insolent,"  said  he.        *  * 

Clubs  will  be  organized  in  Chicago  to  arouse  interest  in  this  pension  bill. 
Mr.  Vaughan  has  made  arrangements  for  badges.  The  design  is  a  suggestive 
one — a  negro  chained  and  handcuffed,  with  the  flag  of  the  Union  waving  over 
him. 

Another  idea  Mr.  Vaughan  has  is  the  erection  of  a  handsf  me  home  and 
hospital  for  aged  ex-slaves.  It  is  to  be  called  the  "National  ex-Slaves' 
Home"  and  is  to  accommodate  2,000  inmates.  After  the  old  slaves  are  all 
dead  it  will  be  turned  into  a  military  school  for  young  colored  men,  to  be 
called  the  "  Afro- American  West  Point." 

Just  where  this  building  will  be  built  is  not  yet  determined,  and  Mr. 
Vaughan  will  consult  with  some  of  the  leading  colored  people  of  the  country 
before  the  site  is  selected.  The  best  place  is  thought  to  be  near  some  large 
city,  and  already  land  has  been  offered.  Yesterday  Mr.  Vaughan  received  a 
letter  from  the  Patterson  Trust  Company,  of  Chicago,  offering  fifty  acres  of 


15S  ADDEKfiA. 


land,  within  thirty  minutes'  ride  of  the  city,  for  the  purpose.  The  company 
offers  to  furnish  warranty  deed  and  perfect  abstract  of  title  upon  demand. 

A  HOME  FOR  OLD  SLAVES, 

In  asking  Congress  to  be  just  and  fair  towards  the  slaresof  the  anti-bellum 
period  it  has  occurred  to  the  author  of  this  work  that  many  ex-slaves  are  now  or 
may  be  so  decrepit  and  dependent  before  the  day  of  relief  arrives  that  thty  will 
be  suffering  those  tortures  incident  to  all  human  beings  depressed  by  hunger  and 
want,  which  their  own  effort  will  be  unable  to  supply.  For  the  relief  of  such 
it  has  suggested  itself  to  the  mind  of  the  writer  that  private  beneficence  could 
be  invoked  for  the  establishment  of  a  hospital  or  home,  managed  after  the 
general  spirit  and  manner  of  the  various  soldiers'  homes  now  extant,  where 
dependent  freedmen  may  be  cared  for  in  their  old  and  declining  years.  This 
subject  was  discussed  at  a  public  meeting  in  Chicago,  and  met  with  hearty 
favor.  As  a  sequence  of  such  discussion  the  communication  appearing  below 
was  written  to  the  subscribers  and  signed  by  a  real  estate  firm  amply  able  to 
perform  its  pledges  and  to  assiit  materially  in  the  promotion  of  a  humane  work 
of  vast  magnitude. 

Of  course  the  plan  proposed  is  yet  crude,  and  may  undergo  consider- 
able amendment  before  it  is  put  in  operation.  But  the  general  plan  will  em- 
brace a  use  for  property  donated  as  a  site  for  hospital  or  home  purposes  after 
the  race  of  old  slaves  shall  have  become  extinct.  It  has  occurred  to  the 
author  that  there  might  be  provision  made  for  a  military  school  for  colored 
youth,  where  the  coming  generations  of  black  citizens  might  be  schooled  in 
the  manual  of  arms,  and  in  sciences  incident  thereto,  which  will  add  to  their 
usefulness  in  life.  For  the  advancement  of  such  a  theory,  and  a  promulgat  ion 
of  the  general  ideas  involved,  the  following  proposition  has  been  submitted 
and  is  still  open  to  acceptance.  [Other  propositions  and  localities  are  solici- 
ted and  will  be  carefully  considered.  The  house  will  not  cost  less  than  a 
million  dollars.] 

Chicago,  III.,  May  6, 1891, 

Hon.  W.  H.  Vaughan,  Omaha,  Neb.: 

Dear  Sir:  Having-  heard  that  it  was  your  desire  to  secure,  gratis,  fifty  acres  of 
good  land  within  thirty  minutes  ride  of  some  nice  city  for  the  purpose  of  beautifying 
the  grounds  and  erecting  a  handsome  home»nd  hospital  for  the  ex-slaves  o1  the  South, 
the  same  to  be  known  as  the  "  National  Ex-Slaves'  Home,"  and  the  buildings  are  to  be 
sufficiently  large  to  accommodate  over  2,000  persons,  and  at  the  death  of  fill  of  Amer- 
ica's ex-slaves,  we  are  told  it  is  your  purpose  to  dedicate  the  property  to  the  young 
colored  men  as  a  military  school  to  be  known  as  the  "Afro-American  West  Point," 
and  that  the  same  is  to  be  conducted  similar  to  that  of  our  present  (jovernment  at 
West  Point. 

If  we  are  correctly  informed,  we  desire  to  offer  you,  as  Trustee  and  Manager,  the 
fifty  acres  of  land  wanted.  It  is  within  thirt,y  minutes  car-ride  of  Chicago,  Illinois.  We 
will  furnish  warrantee  deed  and  perfect  absti-act  of  title  upon  demand. 

Should  you,  in  behalf  of  the  colored  people  of  the  United  b-tates,  accept  this  offer, 
please  call  at  our  oflices  on  Dearborn  street,  that  we  may  consummate  the  matter. 

Very  Respectfully, 

Patterson  Trust  Co., 

By  R.  W.  Patterson. 

In  canvassing  through  the  States  in  behalf  of  the  pension  appeal  and 
wherever  the  author  may  go  he  will  advocate  the  endowment  of  a  home  and 
hospital  of  the  kind  proposed.  It  will  be  governed  by  a  board  of  five  direct- 
ors, including  the  author,  the  residue  to  be  representative  colored  men,  in 
whose  selection  subscribers  to  a  hospital  fund  shall  have  a  fair  and  equible 
voice.  Of  course,  the  plan  is  yet  crude,  and  suggestions  looking  to  its 
improvement,  from  any  respectable  source,  will  be  most  gladly  heard  and 
considered. 

Returning  from  his  Eastern  trip.  Mr,  Vaughan  addressed  two  public 
meetings  at  Omaha  in  advocacy  of  his  views,  the  first  at  Boyd's  Opera  House, 
and  the  second  at  one  of  the  colored  churches  of  the  city.  At  the  latter  meet- 
ing especially,  there  was  a  large  and  intensely  interested  auditory,  every  man 
and  woman  of  which  entered  with  spirit  and  determination  into  the  plans 
which  Mr.  Vaughan  developed.  The  meeting  was  also  addressed  by  the 
pastor  of  the  church,  who  gave  his  willing  assent  and  encouragement  to  the 
plan  of  pension  as  a  work  of  justice  which  the  Government  owed  to  its  once 
enslaved  inhabitants.  As  far  as  active  labor  in  behalf  of  the  pension  proposi- 
tion has  been  carried  forward,  there  is  reason  to  hope  for  a  success  at  a  day 
much  earlier  than  great  reforms  usually  meet  with  fruition  when  they  are 
unfolded  to  the  masses  of  the  people  for  the  first  time. 


ADDENDA. 


159 


The  plan  of  granting  pensions  to  ex-slaves  was  originally  broached  b}-  the 
author  of  this  work,  who  is  an  Omaha  citizen.  The  lirst  bill  introduced  into 
Congress  looking  to  the  great  end  in  view  was  drafted  by  the  author  and 
presented  in  the  House  of  Representatives  by  an  Omaha  citizen  who  repre- 
sented the  Omaha  district. 

The  first  public  meeting  upon  the  question  took  place  in  Omaha,  at  which 
a  number  of  her  ablest  colored  citizens  were  present.  That  meeting  took 
place  in  the  month  of  June,  1890,  and  the  following  resolutions  then  and  there 
adopted  were  transmitted  to  Mr.  Vaughan,  for  which  he  cordially  expressed 
thanks  and  approval: 

Whereas,  The  United  States  GovernmeDt  did,  for  three-quarters  of  a  century, 
abet,  aid  and  eneourage  slavery,  the  northern  and  southern  States  alike,  thus  making- 
the  entire  Government  responsible  for  the  great  injustice  perpetrated  on  the  colored 
people,  even  to  the  extent  that  the  slaves  were  taxed  as  chattels  to  the  amount  of 
millions  of  dollar;^,  and 

Whereas,  The  glory  of  freedom  consists  in  its  magnitude  and  justice,  and 
Whereas,  The  negro  was  made  a  freeman  in  pursuance  of  a  sentiment  of  right,  and 
Whereas,  The  proclamations  of  Abraham  Lincoln  intended  to  right  the  wrongs 
of  ages,  and 

Whereas,  The  voice  of  freedom  holds  forth  the  idea  of  universal  liberty,  therefore 

Resolved,  That  the  sons  of  liberty,  represented  in  the  African  race  of  to-daj', 
demand  that  all  men  made  free  ought  to  have  full  right  of  independence,  irrespective 
of  race,  color  or  previous  condition  of  servitude. 

Resolved,  That  we  heartily  concur  with  the  Hon.  W.  R.  Vaughan  in  demanding 
that  the  great  wrong  be  righted  and  that  America's  former  slaves  be  pensioned  for  the 
injustice  done  them;  not  only  for  the  benefit  of  the  slaves  themselves,  but  that  the 
United  States  may  be  recognized  by  foreign  nations,  as  ever  ready  to  compensate 
those  upon  whom  it  has  committed  wrong. 

ResfAvcd,  That  eternal  honor  is  due  ex-Mayor  Vaughan,  who,  as  early  as  1870,  con- 
ceived the  right  of  pension  to  the  men  whose  best  days  were  spent  in  sJavery,  and  who 
personally,  in  1883,  gave  his  views  in  writing  to  distinguished  senators  and  members  of 
Congress. 

Resolved,  That  all  colored  men  released  from  bondage  are  under  personal  obliga- 
tions to  Mayor  Vaughan  for  the  manly  position  taken  by  him  for  their  rights. 

Resolved,  That  our  lives,  the  honor  of  our  Government  and  our  most  sacred  rights 
are  involved  in  the  proposition  which  Mr.  Vaughan  has  caused  to  be  presented  to  the 
American  Congress,  through  a  bill  prepared  by  him  and  introduced  at  his  request  by 
the  Hon.  W.  J.  Connell,  member  of  Congress  from  Nebraska,  and  we  will  do  our 
utmost  to  establish  those  rights,  and  to  have  them  observed  as  the  law  of  the  land. 

Resolved,  That  colored  men  everywher^-  are  requested  to  form  clubs  and  to  com- 
municate with  W.  R.  Vaughan  with  a  view  to  prompt  and  efficient  action. 

Resolved,  That  the  press  of  the  United  States,  independent  of  political  divisions,  be 
and  hereby  is  respectfully  requested  to  publish  these  resolutions,  and  to  state  to  the 
public  the  spirit  of  the  law  proposed  by  Mayor  Vaughan. 

A.  D.  White,  Chairman. 
F.  L.  Barnett,  Secretary. 

The  few  persons  of  the  city  of  Omaha  who  first  took  an  interest  in  this 
noble  work  of  humanity  have  been  augmented  in  number  by  others,  who  have 
given  the  question  at  issue  proper  study  and  inspection.  The  number  should 
continue  to  increase.  The  great  and  humane  thought  at  the  beginning 
belongs  to  Omaha,  and  it  is  certain  at  last  to  prevail.  It  is  meet  and  right 
that  Omaha  should  have  due  credit  in  the  hour  of  success. 

THE  VOICE  OF  THE  PRESS. 

The  power  of  the  newspaper  press  of  the  United  States  is  a  popular  lever- 
age, carrying  a  weight  of  inliuence  exceeding  any  other  engine  of  thought 
that  has  a  tendency  to  create  and  promote  opinion.  The  press  united  in 
favor  of  any  one  device  or  thought  would  be  invincible.  The  diverse  views  of 
editorial  writers  have  the  effect  of  producing  discussion  of  public  questions, 
out  of  which  the  truth  is  generally  evolved.  The  author  of  this  little  work 
kindly  acknowledges  the  benefit  which  his  labors  have  received  from  editorial 
sources,  both  in  book  notices  and  suggestions  from  knights  of  the  quill, 
which  have  had  a  pleasing  effect  in  overcoming  rank  prejudice  in  a  num- 
ber of  cases.  It  would  be  a  pleasure  to  have  the  press  of  the  country 
discuss  the  various  phases  of  the  Vaughan  Freedmen's  Pension  Bill,  as  the 
same  shall  appear  to  them.  Discussion  can  do  no  harm,  and  in  the  inter- 
change of  views  there  is  a  possibility  that  those  antagonistic  to  the  convictions 
of  the  author  may  find  a  new  light  manifesting  itself  to  them.  Necessarily 
many  valuable  notices  of  newspapers  have  been  incorporated  into  these  pages 
in  the  presentation  of  matters  wherewith  such  notices  were  immediately  con- 
nected, but  many  other  statements  have  been  printed,  of  greater  or  less  extent, 
for  which  the  writers  have  most  sincere  acknowledgment.  There  are  others 
which  may  not  be  improperly  introduced. 


160 


ADDENDA. 


The  Chicago  Times  of  Friday,  August  29,  1890,  did  not  indorse  the 
Vaughan  idea  of  negro  pensions,  but  in  noting  the  presence  of  the  author  in 
the  lakeside  city  was  good  enough  to  remark: 

Judg-e  W,  K. Vaughan,  ex-mayor  of  Council  Bluffs,  Iowa,  now  editor  and  proprieto 
of  the  Omaha  Daily  DemocraU  is,  at  the  Palmer  House.  Judge  Vau^han's  latest  is  to 
secure  pensions  for  all  ex-slaves  who  are  not  criminals.  June  24,  Congressman  Cou- 
ncil, by  his  request,  introduced  into  the  national  Hovise  of  Representatives  a  bill  to  pro- 
vide pensions  for  f reedmen.  The  document  provides  that  all  persons  released  from 
involuntary  servitude,  according  to  the  proclamations  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  shall  be 
pensioners  upon  the  bounty  of  the  United  States  excepting  those  convicted  of  crime. 

The  Tribune  of  Thursday,  May  7,  1891,  in  noticing  one  of  Mr.  Vaughan's 
lectures  at  Chicago,  did  so  in  the  following  words: 

Ex-Mayor  "Walter  Vaughan  addressed  an  audience  of  colored  people  at  Dr.  Wash- 
ington's church,  on  Dearborn  street,  near  T  went  J'- ninth,  last  night,  on  the  subject  of 
his  ex-Slave  Pension  bill.  Mr.  Vaughan  told  his  hearers,  in  substance,  thatthe  Gov- 
ernment was  indebted  to  the  negroes  f'  r  the  long  years  of  servitude  they  had 
undergone.  He  criticised  President  Harrison  for  writing  a  letter  in  reply  to  a  request 
for  his  assistance,  in  which  Mr.  Harrison  said :  "  I  have  not  had  time  to  give  the  sub- 
ject thought."  Mr.  Vaughan  advised  the  negroes  to  stand  together  and  demand  their 
political  rights. 

It  was  Mr.  Harrison's  opinion  that  was  solicited,  not  his  assistance,  and  the 
author  regretted  that  the  then  senator  from  Indiana  and  now  President  had 
not  had  time  to  arrrive  at  any  opinion  whatever  in  the  premises. 

A  private  letter  received  from  Editor  Cooper,  of  the  Indianapolis  Freemen, 
after  soliciting  a  cut  of  the  author  for  publication  in  that  valuable  journal, 
was  graciously  kind  in  appending  the  following  flattering  remark: 

We  shall  be  glad  to  keep  in  constant  communication  with  you,  and  we  feel  certain 
that  we  can  be  efficacious  in  keeping  your  name  and  your  work  before  the  nine  million 
of  colored  people  in  this  country.  Should  you  visit  IndianapoHs  at  any  time  we  shall 
expect  to  meet  you  in  person. 

It  was  with  difficulty  that  the  author  of  Vaughan's  Freedman's  Pension 
Bill  and  Plea  for  the  Old  Slave  secured  even  a  negative  recognition  from  the 
public  press  when  the  first  edition  appeared  and  sought  the  countenance  of 
public  attention.  Few  editors  favored  the  idea  advanced,  and  those  opposed 
would  not  give  the  work  even  the  courtesy  of  saying  that  the  plea  was 
not  in  consonance  with  their  opinions  of  public  policy.  The  settled  idea 
seemed  to  be  that  of  killing  the  appeal  by  ignoring  it  altogether.  But  in  the 
face  of  contemptuous  silence  from  the  hundreds  of  newspapers  to  which 
copies  of  the  first  edition  were  mailed,  there  were  other  papers — they  were 
few  but  very  grand — gave  the  matter  discussed  a  decent  review,  even  when 
not  favorable  to  the  principle  Involved.  To  such  journals  are  due  sin- 
cerest  thanks. 

The  Omaha  Z)(2^72/  of  Sunday,  November  30,  1890,  contained  the  fol- 
lowing excellent  mention  in  its  column  of  book  notices: 

In  an  attractive  book  of  125  pages  Hon.  W.  R.  Vauehan,  ex-mayor  and  editor, 
presents  an  elaborate  explanation  of  his  "Freedman's  Pension  Bill."  The  book  is  not 
only  an  exposition  of  that  unique  measure,  but  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  com- 
plete statements  of  the  negro  question  which  has  been  written.  A  Virginian  l)ybirthand 
a  democrat  in  politics,  Mr.  Vaughan  yields  to  no  man  in  his  interest  in  the  uplifting  of 
the  negro  to  a  plane  of  respectable  citizenship.  His  book  is  dedicated  to  Hon.  W.  J. 
Connell,  "  the  brave  representative  who  dared  to  say  that  the  slave  of  a  century  is 
entitled  to  financial  recognition  because  of  former  wrongs.  "  It  reviews  the  history 
of  slavery  in  the  United  States,  of  the  negro  in  the  war,  and  of  the  progress  of 
the  negro  since  the  war.  Numerous  portraits  of  eniment  colored  men  are 
printed.  Having  proved  that  the  negro  race  was  worthy,  both  before  and  after  its 
emancipation,  the  author  proceeds  to  argue  the  injustice  of  leaviTig  them  free  but 
ignorant  and  poor,  and  to  show  how  his  pension  scheme  would  be  a  long  delayed 
measure  of  justice.  Among  the  features  of  the  book  are  autograph  letters  from 
President  Harrison  and  other  well  known  public  men.  It  is  a  work  that  is  come  of  a 
very  wide  reading  and  should  certainly  be  liberally  patronized  by  the  author's  many 
friends  in  this  locality. 

The  editor-in-chief  and  manager  of  the  Omaha  Bee  is  the  Hon.  Edward 
Rosewater,  a  gentleman  who  is  at  once  a  leading  republican  politician,  a 
statesman  of  fearless  views,  as  he  has  manifested  on  many  occasions  ;  a  man 
of  research,  especially  skilled  in  the  science  of  telegraphy  and  all  other  lines 
of  electrical  management ;  and  a  citizen  of  broad  views  on  all  social  ques- 
tions which  affect  the  general  welfare.  While  not  cordially  endorsing  the 
idea  of  negro  pensionage,  he  is  willing  that  the  experiment  shall  have  fair 
discussion  and  honest  consideration. 


ADDEXDA. 


161 


Especial  recognition  is  given  to  the  Denver  News,  which  gave  the  proposed 
pension  bill  an  elaboi ate  editorial  discussion,  afier  a  critical  examination 
the  pamphlet  edition  first  issued.    On  Monday,  December  22,  1890,  the  News 
editorialized,  under  the  caption  of  "  Pensioning  Ex-Slaves,"  as  follows  : 

TheJVe  u'S  is  in  receipt  of  a  pamphlet  by  Hon.  Walter  R.  Vaughan,  editor  of  the 
Omaha  Denioc/  at,  entitled  "  Vaughan's  Freedmen's  Pen-ion  Bill,"' being  an  appeal  in 
b  half  of  the  passage  by  Congress  of  the  bill  introduced  at  the  last  session  by  Hon. 
W.  J.  Connell,  of  the  Fn-st  Nebraska  District,  "providing  for  pensions  for  freedmen 
released  from  involuntary  servitude,  and  to  atford  aid  and  assistance  for  certain  per- 
sons released,  that  they  may  be  maintained  in  old  age."  This  bill  was  prepared  by 
Mr.  Vaughan,  and  the  pamphlet  he  has  recently  published  is  an  argument  in  favor  of 
its  passtge. 

Mr.  Vaughan  is  a  natire  of  Virginia,  a  Democrat  by  birth,  education  and  instinct, 
his  father  and  three  brothers  serving  on  the  Confederate  side  during  the  War  of  the 
Rebellion,  he  himself  only  being  prevented  from  entering  the  same  service  \>y 
reason  of  his  youth.  In  his  appeal  Mr.  Vaugh-n  traces  the  histoiyof  slavery  in  this 
country  from  the  time  of  its  intriiduction  by  the  slave  traders  of  Great  Britain  in  the 
early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  to  the' date  of  their  freedom  after  the  great  war 
between  the  States.   =*=   *  * 

He  simply  points  to  the  fact  that  here  was  a  race  of  people  kept  in  slavery  by  the 
laws  of  the  Government  for  over  two  and  a  half  centuries,  denied  all  the  rights  of 
citizenship,  treated  as  cattle,  horses,  swine  and  other  chattels ;  »who  were  uned- 
ucated, illiterate,  dependent  creatures,  suddenly  given  their  freedom  and  thrown  on 
their  own  resources  ;  in  the  language  of  Mr.  Vaughan,  "  the  old  slave  was  turned  out 
to  starve  or  die."' 

It  is  for  these  creatures  that  Mr.  Vaughan  makes  his  appeal.   *  *  * 

Giving  Mr.  Vaughan  credit  for  sinceritj' and  an  honest  desire  to  do  what  he  con- 
siders to  tie  a  just  and  humane  act,  we  are  not  prepared  to  endorse  his  proposition. 
*  *  *  The  negro  is  all  right  if  let  alone.  Let  politicians  keep  their  hands  off  the 
South  and  lease  the  -whites  and  blacks  to  work  out  the  problem  as  to  how  they  shall 
manage.  *  *  *  But  there  is  an  air  of  sincerity' about  Mr.  Vaughan's  plea  which 
entitles  it  to  respectful  consideration. 

Hon.  John  x\ikins,  editor  of  the  News,  is  -a  leading  democrat  of  the  West, 
well  known  throughout  the  Uni  )n,  and  his  views  are  entitled  to  consideration. 
The  argument  he  has  made  a  iversely  to  pension  has  alread}'  been  fully 
answered  in  this  book.  He  is  therefore  entitled  to  be  heard,  for  he  is  an 
honest  and  well-thinking  man. 

The  Advocate,  of  Omaha,  a  paper  published  by  a  negro  of  ability  and  char- 
acter in  the  interest  of  his  own  race,  had  the  following  to  say  in  its  issue  of 
Saturday,  November  22,  1890: 

We  present  to  our  many  readers  this  week  a  sketch  of  one  who  has  proven  himself 
to  be  a  friend,  and  a  true  friend,  to  our  race.  Hon  Walter  R.  Vaughan  is  a  well  known 
business  man  of  our  city,  one  who  has  sufficient  influence  to  command  for  us  a  great 
deal.  He  is  also  a  Southern  man.  one  Avho  knows  the  need  of  the  negro,  and  who  has 
seen  the  poor  black  man  labor  from  early  morn  into  the  blackness  of  night  under  the 
heavy  yoke  of  slavery-  and  oppression-  '  »ur  friend,  we  realize  that,  "  a  friend  in  need, 
is  a  friend  indeed.""  Continue  in  your  well  begun  work,  and  before  the  sun  of  your  life 
is  set,  may  av  realize  jusrice  from  the  hands  of  the  American  Governmeut,  and  ever 
may  the  name  of  Walter  R.  ^'aughan  be  revered  and  honored  hy  the  manj'  millions  of 
Afro- Americans  in  the  comnig  generations. 

The  Omaha  Progress,  published  by  Mr.  F.  L.  Barnett,  a  gentleman  of 
high  ability  as  a  writer  and  an  honor  to  the  negro  race,  published  the  follow- 
ing paragraph  in  its  edition  of  Saturday,  May  23,  1891: 

We  believe  Mr.  Vaughan  is  sincere  in  his  undertaking  to  have  the  bill  pass  Con- 
gress to  pension  ex-slaves,  and  we  heartily  endorse  his  sentiments  ajid  will  do  all  in 
our  power  to  help  in  the  good  work.  It'is  a  just  debt  and  should  be  paid.  You  ail 
know  that  the  W'  ite  man  had  our  labor  for  two  huudied  years,  and  this  Government 
should  pay  for  it.  Let  every  Afro-American  in  th.s  Statf  help  him  push  the  good  work 
on  to  victory.    Get  one  of  his  books,  for  Mr.  Vaughan  is  right. 

The  Freeman,  of  Indianapolis,  lod..  under  date  of  December  13,  1890,  had 
the  foUowiag  rem  irk  concerning  the  Vaughan  bo'^k,  and  the  same  paper  has 
made  other  approbatory  remarks  on  the  same  s-ubject: 

"A  Plea  for  American  Freedmen,"  by  W.  R.  Vaughan,  of  Omaha,  Xeb.,  is  a  little 
book  that  ought  to  be  read  by  e\"ery  one  for  its  historic  value.  It  is  truly  "multum 
in  parvo."  Without  reflection  we  would  say  it  is  the  Freedmen's  Case  in  Equity.  We 
heartily  endorse  the  Freedmen's  Pension  bill  as  human,  as  just,  as  equitable  The 
passage  of  such  a  bill  by  Congress  would,  to  a  very  great  exient,  compensate  the  sur- 
viving ex-slaves  for  years  of  unrequited  toil.  As  the  writer  truthfully  says  :  "  It  will 
enable  an  impoverished  race,  reduced  to  iienury  through  no  fault  of  their  own,  to 
place  themselves  in  a  position  of  reasonable  independence  in  their  struggle  for  exist- 
encf- and  recognition  in  general  business  affairs."  The  name  of  W.  R.  Vaughan  will 
certainly  have  a  place  in  the  galaxy  of  humanitarians. 


162 


ADDENDA. 


The  New  York  Advertiser,  edited  by  the  Hon.  John  A  Oockerill,  probably 
the  best  newspaper  man  in  the  Union,  who  came  to  New  York  with  Josepu 
Pulitzer  to  refound,  as  it  were,  the  New  York  World,  then  in  the  ihroes  of 
dissolution — the  success  of  this  newspaper  under  John  A.  CockeriJl's  man- 
agement is  well  known  and  needs  no  comment.  Mr.  Cockerill  recently  left 
the  World  and  purchased  the  New  York  Commtreial  Advertiser,  the  oldest 
paper  in  the  city,  and  the  Daily  Continent,  the  latter  now  called  the  Morning 
Advertiser  -has  had  much  to  say  editorially  in  regard  to  the  Vaughan  Ex- 
Slave  Pension  bill.  On  July  31,  1891,  the  Advertiser  gives  the  matter  a  col- 
umn and  a  half  write-up.  August  3,  1891,  it  published  the  following  article. 
We  reproduce  the  same,  hoping  to  correct  the  evil  by  agitation.  Colonel 
Cockerill  says: 

A  FIELD  FOR  VAUGHAN. 

"  There  really  appears  to  be  plenty  of  business  in  this  country  for  a  man 
like  W.  R.  Vaughan,  of  Iowa.  Another  Abraham  Lincoln  is  necessary  to 
see  that  the  colored  man  gets  all  his  rights,  and  if  Vaughan  isn't  that  man, 
who  is?  There  is  much  need  for  Vaughan  just  now  in  Mississippi,  where 
the  colored  man  is  threatened  with  disfranchisement. 

The  two  provisions  in  the  new  constitution  of  that  State,  one  of  which 
provides  for  the  prepayment  of  a  poll-tax  four  months  before  an  election,  and 
the  other  an  educational  qualification,  are  likely  to  reduce  the  negro  vote  at 
least  75  per  cent. 

To  deprive  three-fourths  of  the  colored  people  of  Mississippi  of  the 
right  of  suffrage  granted  to  them  under  the  constitution  of  the  United  States 
is  a  matter  which  should  claim  the  attention  of  friends  of  the  negro,  and  we 
hasten  to  lay  the  matter  before  Mr.  Vaughan.  The  ex-slaves  will  doubtless 
be  ^lad  enough  to  receive  the  $400,000,000  he  proposes  to  get  for  them  from 
the  United  States  Government  and  Great  Britain,  but  they  certainly  do  not 
wish  to  be  deprived  of  the  right  to  vote. 

If  Mr.  Vaughan  can  restore  the  electoral  franchise  to  these  oppressed 
blacks  of  Mississippi,  there  will  then  be  none  to  question  his  ability  to  swing 
the  negro  vote  in  '92." 

The  New  York  World  of  August  2,  1891,  published  the  following : 

PENSIONS  FOR  EX-SLAVES. 

"  W.  R.  Vaughan,  of  Omaha,  Neb.,  has  published  a  pamphlet  on  the  ques- 
tion of  paying  pensions  to  ex-slaves.  He  claims  that  the  Government  was 
not  warranted  in  freeing  slaves  without  providing  them  with  means  of 
support. 

Mr.  Vaughan  prepared  a  bill  to  that  end,  which  was  introduced  in  Con- 
gress by  Representative  Council,  of  Omaha.  It  was  referred  to  the  Commit- 
tee on  Pensions,  which  never  reported  upon  it. 

Many  well-known  men,  among  them  Bishops  Newman  and  Arnett  and 
Frederick  Douglass,  have  written  letters  of  thanks  to  Mr.  Vaughan  for  his 
labors." 

The  Chicago  Mail  of  August  18.  1891,  gave  publicity  to  the  following 
silly  telegram  from  Washington,  D.C.,  and  we  re-publish  the  same,  to  show 
how  recklessly  newspapers  at  times  allow  articles  to  appear  in  their  columns. 

LATEST  REPUBLICAN  MOVE. 

VAUGHAN's  SCHEME  TO  PENSION  NEGROES  IS  DESIGNED  TO  KEEP  THEM  IN  THE 

PARTY. 

Washington,  D.  C,  August  17. — When  Vaughan,  ex-mayor  of  Council 
Bluffs,  made  his  speech  six  weeks  ago  to  a  throng  of  breathless  negroes,  in 
which  he  said  the  ex-slaves  should  have  $400,000,000  from  the  Government 
as  pensions,  everybody  thought  Vaughan  was  a  blatant,  ignorant  demagogue. 
But  there  was  more  behind  it  than  was  at  first  suspected.  There  is  evidence 
— and  a  good  deal  of  it,  too — that  this  is  a  new  scheme  to  hold  the  negro  to 
the  republican  party  till  after  1892.  It  is  a  revamping  of  the  story  told  in  the 
South  for  ten  years  about  the  Government's  intention  to  bestow  upon  the 
newly  freed  forty  acres  of  land  and  a  mule. 


ADDEXDA. 


163 


It  is  well-nigh  incredible  tbat  such  a  scheme  as  Yaughan  is  advocating 
should  be  approved  by  prominent  republicans,  but  it  is — that  is  to  say,  they 
know  it  can  never  amount  to  anything,  but  it  will  be  believed  by  the  negro 
voters  in  the  South  and  will  bring  them  out  to  the  polls.  Vaughan  tried  to 
commit  the  president  to  it,  but  Harrison  had  too  much  sense  to  be  led  into 
such  a  snare.  Fred  Douglass  has  come  out  in  a  letter  favoring  it.  Douglass 
knows,  of  course,  that  there  is  no  possible  chance  for  such  a  scheme,  but  he 
is  in  the  plot.    It  is  being  preached  all  through  the  South. 

The  author  is  a  Democrat  and  not  a  Republican,  and  be  never  saw  and 
talked  with  President  Harrison  in  his  life,  nor  has  he  had  a  line  from  him  since 
1883.  The  above  article  is  only  in  keeping  with  many  similar  misrepresent- 
ations concocted  to  injure  the  Vaughan  Ex-Slave  pension  bill.  The  Chi- 
cago Tribune,  a  radical  Republican  paper,  has  published  column  after 
column,  editorially,  in  opposition  to  the  Vaughan  Ex-Slave  pension  bill,  but 
in  ea^.h  instance  the  argument  was  so  vague  and  nonsensical  that  ihey  were 
self-condemning  and  manifested  malice  and  hatred  to  the  negro.  Tne  fol- 
lowing article  appeared  in  that  paper,  August  18,  1891,  to  wit:  "Mr. 
Vaughan,  of  Nebraska,  the  man  who  proposes  to  give  the  ex-slaves,  freed  at 
the  expense  of  so  many  lives  and  so  much  money,  a  pension  of  .$400,000,000 
based  on  23^  percent,  fifty-year  government  bonds,  sajs  that  he  has  letters  of 
personal  recommendation  from  John  M.  Thurston,  Senator  Cullom,  Carter 
Harrison,  and  a  number  of  other  prominent  Republicans  and  Democrats,  and 
that  most  of  them  say  regarding  his  bill,  '  Even  if  the  details  of  the  plan  may  be 
found  impracticable,  something  in  the  line  of  the  measure  ought  to  be  adopted.' 
Undoubtedly  those  gentlemen  who  wrote  thus  did  so  more  out  of  politeness 
and  a  wish  to  get  rid  of  Mr.  Vaughan  than  because  they  took  stock  in  his 
project.  It  would  have  been  better  for  them  to  say  plumply  that  they  had 
no  sympathy  with  any  such  scheme,  and  were  opposed  unalterably  to  taxing 
the  people  to  carry  it  out,  especially  as  those  who  constitute  now  the  majority 
of  American  citizens  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  slavery  in  any  man- 
ner, shape,  or  form,  never  profited  by  it,  and  never  maintained  it.  Why 
should  any  man  of  forty  or  under  be  taxed  on  account  of  ex-slaves?  The 
best  and  kindest  plan  for  public  men  to  pursue  when  cranks  write  to  them 
about  their  whimsical  ideas  is  to  squelch  them  summarily  and  not  hold  out 
even  a  suspicion  of  the  coolest  kind  of  sympathy.  The  least  intimation  of 
approval  always  encourages  the  crank  to  keep  on  in  his  folly." 

On  August  12th,  1891,  the  Chicago  Tribune  published  the  following 
editorial : 

PENSIONING  THE  EX-SLAVES. 

A  iSTebraskan  named  Vaughan  makes  the  wild  and  ridiculous  demand  that 
the  United  States  Government  pension  all  the  ex-slaves.  The  Tribune  spoke 
of  this  fantastic  scheme  in  the  terms  it  deserved.  The  Charleston  (S.  C.) 
News  and  Courier  observes  : 

It  is  easy  to  see  why  the  Tribune  is  opposed  to  pensioning  the  ex-slaves. 
Its  policy  is  dictated  entirely  by  its  inveterate  hatred  of  the  South  and  South- 
ern people.  Of  course  it  is  opposed  to  pensioning  the  ex-slaves,  because  it 
knows  that  about  7,000,000  of  those  interesting  people  live  in  the  South,  and 
most  of  the  pension  money  would  be  circulated  in  the  South.  We  venture  to 
say  that  if  a  majority  of  the  negroes  lived  in  the  North  or  Northwest  the 
Tribune  would  be  the  most  powerful  advocate  of  the  Vaughan  movement. 

If  pensions  should  be  given  those  black  men  on  whose  unwilling  labor  the 
slaveholders  lived  until  they  were  set  free  by  Lincoln  and  Northern  blood  and 
treasure,  then  the  pensions  should  be  paid  by  those  who  profited  by  the  un- 
rewarded toil.  If  Robert  Smalls'  ex-master  made  more  out  of  Robert  while 
he  held  him  as  a  chattel  than  the  cost  of  clothing,  feeding,  doctoring,  and 
housing  him,  then  that  ex-chattel  has  a  moral  right  to  begin  a  suit  in  assump- 
sit quantum  meruit  to  recover  the  amount,  whatever  it  was,  that  is  due  him. 

*  *  *  Whatever  pensioning  or  repaying  is  done  must  be  the 
free  act  of  a  touched  and  regenerated  Southern  conscience,  remorseful  for 
the  wrongs  done  the  bondmen  in  the  past.  Under  no  possible  circumstances 
can  there  be  any  paying  of  such  pensions  by  the  non-slaveholding  North, 


164 


ADDENDA. 


which  was  not  benefited  by  slave  labor — for  the  masters  pocketed  what  profits 
were  made — but  which,  owing  to  the  existence  of  slavery,  was  saddled  with 
an  enormous  debt  in  the  efforts  of  abolishing  it  which  is  not  yet  paid  off. 
Slavery  is  morally  indefensible  and  economically  bad,  especially  for  the  non- 
slaveholders  in  the  slave  States  ;  but  it  had  its  educational  advantages  for  the 
blacks,  as  Stanley  or  any  other  man  who  knows  the  negroes  of  Africa  and 
also  those  of  the  United  States  will  say.  They  have  been  taught  to  labor, 
they  have  been  taught  Christian  civilizaiion,  and  to  speak  the  noble  English 
language  instead  of  some  African  gibberish.  The  account  is  square  with  the 
ex-slaves.  The  pension  proposition  is  idiotic  in  its  absurdity.  But  if  any 
were  to  be  pa  d  it  should  come  out  of  the  ex-masters'  pockets. 

Now,  in  order  to  answer  all  such  foolish  newspaper  opposition,  we  repro- 
duce in  this  volume  a  few  of  the  hundreds  of  letters  in  our  possession,  from 
representative  tax-payers  and  politicians,  giving  fac-simile  signatures  with 
each.  They  should  convince  the  intelligent  reader  that  the  author  of  the 
Ex-slave  pension  bill  is  in  earnest  with  his  work,  and  that  his  ideas  are  far 
from  visionary  and  cranky.  It  will  be  a  very  difficult  matter  for  the  editor  of 
the  Tribune  to  convince  any  American  citizen,  with  a  spark  of  justice  iu  his 
heart,  that  slavery  was  a  Southern  wrong,  rather  than  a  national  evil,  and  that 
the  debt  due  the  ex-slave  should  be  borne  by  the  former  master,  when  the 
United  States  Government  became  enriched  by  and  through  this  stolen  labor. 
At  least  9,000,000  of  tax-paying  negroes  and  2.000,000  of  negro 
voters  that  are  propagating  very  rapidly  will  soon  demand  from  the  United 
States  and  Great  Britain  what  is  justfy  due  their  race,  for  keeping  them  in 
involuntary  servitude.  The  New  York  World  of  July  31,  1891,  gave  the 
Vaughan  Ex-slave  pension  bill  a  column  notice,  and  has  since  followed  the 
subject  up,  indicating  its  disposition  to  let  the  matter  be  fairly  discussed. 

Many  other  journals  of  fairness,  representing  the  white  and  black  races, 
have  given  excellent  notices  of  the  Vaughan's  Negro  Pension  labors,  but  not 
having  the  papers  now  at  hand  the  notices  can  not  be  reproduced.  Enough, 
however,  have  been  given  to  demonstrate  that  the  cause  of  justice  to  the 
old  slave  is  gaining  a  substantial  foothold.  In  a  comparatively  short  time 
there  will  be  none  so  base  as  to  refuse  to  the  appeal  in  behalf  of  the  once 
patient  skve,  a  fair  and  candid  consideration. 

The  skies  are  brightening. 

The  "  Brotherhood,"  published  near  the  close  of  May,  1891,  contained  a 
very  complimentary  notice  of  the  efforts  of  ex-Mayor  Vaughan,  to  secure  the 
passage  of  his  Pension  Measure,  in  which  the  following  approbatory  com- 
mendation appeared: 

"Hon.  W.  R.  Vaughan,  of  Omaha,  Neb.,  the  author  of  'Vaughan's 
Freedman's  Pension  Bill,'  which  has  passed  the  second  reading  in  Congress, 
spent  two  weeks  in  Chicago,  in  the  interest  of  his  book  and  Pension  bill. 
Mr.  Vaughan  is  a  remarkable  man  in  eloquence,  personal  magnetism  and 
philanthropy.  He  first  began  to  take  an  interest  in  the  pensioning  of  ex- 
slaves  in  1870.  When  he  visited  his  dying  father  in  Alabama,  and  while  pas- 
sing through  Mississippi,  he  saw  old  and  feeble  colored  men  kicked  and  cuffed 
about  by  railroad  officials  because  they  were  unable  to  pay  their  fare.  Mr. 
Vaughan  takes  the  ground  that  the  Government  having  recognized  slavery 
for  many  years,  is  responsible  to  the  slaves  who  labored  to  build  up  the 
Southern  States,  as  unwilling  subjects  to  involuntary  slavery.  He  says  that 
somebody  owes  these  people  for  240  years  of  unrequited  labor.  His  book 
fully  sets  forth  the  reasons  why  the  bill  should  become  a  law  and  is  a  most 
remarkable  presentation  of  the  justness  of  its  claims. 

"It  is  a  second  'Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,'  which  was  the  entering  wedge 
to  the  final  overthrow  of  slavery  in  this  country.  'Uncle  Tom's  Cabin' 
was  writ  en  by  Mrs.  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe  in  1852.  Several  hun- 
dred thousands  of  her  books  were  read  by  the  nations  of  the  world 
and  by  the  South  in  particular;  eight  years  later  the  United  States  was 
in  the  throes  of  an  internecine  war,  which  culminated  in  a  great  Emanci- 
pation through  a  baptism  of  blood.  Twenty-eight  years  later  a  white  man 
appears  upon  the  public  arena,  and  fearlessly,  like  John  the  Baptist,  the  fore- 
runner of  Christ,  tells  this  people  that  they  owe  these  people  a  debt  which 
ought  to  be  paid.   *   *   *   We  would  like  to  see  the  bill  pass,  and  will  do 


ADDENDA. 


165 


all  we  can  to  aid  its  passage,  because  we  believe  the  colored  man  who  has 
ever  been  faithful  and  kind  to  the  white  people,  and  a  true  and  tried  defender 
of  the  nation's  fiag  in  the  nation's  peri],  is  more  entitled  to  a  pension  than 
the  Indian,  whose  hands  have  been  led  in  the  blood  of  the  American  people 
for  more  than  200  years,  and  jet,  strange  to  say,  our  Government  feeds  and 
clothes  these  same  Indians  or  their  descendants  just  the  same  as  though  they 
were  the  best  people  on  earth. 

An  Indian  can  get  on  a  train  and  say  "  gh  "  "  big  Indian  "  to  the  conduc- 
tor and  ride  across  the  continent  free  of  charge.  It  a  colored  man  is  unable 
to  pay  his  fare  he  is  kicked  off  the  train  at  the'first  station.    Why  is  it  thus?" 

[To  the  dear  friend  who  has  kindly  published  the  foregoing-  the  author  will  say 
that  he  has  no  fear  of  fatal  opposition  of  the  South.  Northern  impracticables  are  far 
more  dangf  rous.] 

FOR  THE  BENEFIT  OF  EX-SLAVES. 

The  following  blank  is  prepared  for  the  purpose  of  securing,  as  nearly  as 
may  be  practicable,  the  names  and  present  places  of  residence  of  negroes 
emancipated  from  slavery  by  presidential  proclamation,  amendment  of  Fed- 
eral and  State  constitutions,  and  the  ciicumstances  of  the  War  of  the  Rebel- 
lion from  1861  to  1865. 

1.   Write  full  name  below: 


2.  Give  name  of  master  before  emancipation,  and  his  occupation: 

3.  Give  County  and  State  where  held  in  slavery  at  time  of  being  set  free: 


4.  State  your  present  age,  giving  date  and  place  of  birth,  if  known;  if  not,  proba- 
ble age,  and  place  of  nativity: 


5.  State  what  business  you  have  followed  since  emancipation.  If  a  tradesman  of 
any  craft  in  slave  days,  state  what  your  trade  was,  and  whether  you  have  followed  the 
same  avocation  since  Lecoming  a  free  man: 

6.  Give  your  present  Post-office  address: 

7.  Give  the  names  of  two  reputable  witnesses  who  will  make  oath  to  the  facts  you 
have  stated,  of  their  own  knowledge,  and  where  they  reside: 

8.  State  any  other  important  fact  touching  your  present  abode  or  former  place  of 
residence,  or  that  will  in  any  way  aid  in  your  indentifi  ation. 

Mali  this  blank  to  W.  R.  Vaughan. 

Note.— All  newspapers  and  other  periodical  publications  issued  in  the  interest  of 
the  colored  race,  and  also  all  papers  having  broad  and  catholic  views  upon  subjects 
that  appertain  to  the  weal  of  a  recently  enslaved  race,  now  striving  to  establish  a  high 
civilization  and  to  advance  the  material  interests  of  an  important  class  of  American 
citizens,  are  requested  to  give  the  foregoing  blank  a  few  gratuitous  insertions,  in  order 
that  all  persons  included  within  the  scope  of  Vaughan's  Freedman's  Pension  Bill  may 
learn  of  the  efforts  now  being  made  in  their  interests,  and  may  be  enabled  to  provide 
the  data  necessary  to  include  themselves  within  the  purview  of  such  benefits  as  may 
ensue  from  future  legislation  by  Congress.  W.  R.  V. 

Washington  B.  C,  1891. 

A  NATIONAL  ORGANIZATION. 

One  of  the  points  designed  to  be  consummated  by  the  work  undertaken 
in  behalf  of  the  ex-slave  of  the  South,  is  the  formation  of  clubs  or  associations 
everywhere  which  shall  recognize  a  principal  association  or  head  at  the  seat 
of  national  government,  to  which  all  local  clubs,  or  orders,  will  acknowledge 
paternity,  and  by  means  of  such  a  cordon  of  lodges  the  old  slaves  may  be  able 
to  control  an  influence  in  public  affairs  that  would  be  otherwise  utterly 
impracticable.  These  orders  will  be  controlled  exclusively  by  colored  men, 
the  only  condition  being  that  Mr.  Vaughan,  or,  in  the  event  of  his  death,  one 
of  his  five  sons,  may  meet  with  the  lodges  when  necessary  for  the  advance- 
ment of  the  grand  work  of  Pension  or  Indemnity,  which  will  be  the  central 
idea  of  the  fraternity  in  its  head  and  collateral  branches.  The  organization 
will^  be  secret  only  so  far  as  may  be  necessary  to  promote  the  great  end  in 
view,  and  to  solidify  the  negro  element  in  a  compact  body  for  the  advance- 
ment of  the  main  end  in  view.  The  association  will  be  non-political  in  its 
general  tendency,  committed  by  pledge  only  to  the  support  of  men  who  favor 


166 


ADDENDA. 


the  great  thought  of  negro  pension  in  their  candidacy  for  ofQ.ce.  But  the 
membership  will  be  pledged,  irrevocably,  agaicst  the  fcupporl  of  any  person 
for  place,  who  fails  or  refuses  to  pledge  himself  distinctly  in  favor  of  the 
general  idea  of  the  Vaughan  Freedmen's  Pension  Bill.  In  a  word,  the  asso- 
ciation will  be  one  of  the  colored  race  alone,  designed  to  advance  the  welfare 
of  the  old  slaves  and  their  descendants. 

An  insignia  of  association  will  be  a  badge,  already  being  prepared,  which 
will  be  regarded  as  a  sacred  talisman  of  union  and  determination  wherever 
shown,  and  by  whoever  worn.  An  idea  of  the  style  of  such  a  badge  may  be 
gathered  from  the  following  extract  taken  from  the  columns  of  the  Western 
Jeweler,  published  at  Chicago,  May  9,  1891.  Under  the  caption  of  "  Score 
One  for  Home  Industries,"  the  Jeweler  remarks: 

"  Messrs.  Juergens  &  Anderson,  the  well-known  manufacturing  jewelers, 
125  State  street,  have  secured  one  of  the  largest — if  not  the  largest — orders 
for  the  making  of  badges  ever  placed  in  the  United  States  with  one  manufac- 
turing house.  Last  Monday,  Hon.  W.  R.  Vaughan,  ex-mayor  of  Council 
Bluffs,  la.,  passing  through  Chicago  en  route  for  New  York,  called  upon  the 
Editor  of  the  Western  Jeweler  [an  old-time  friend  of  his  in  the  Northwest], 
and  e7i  passant  mentioned  that  he  was  going  to  New  York  to  secure  a  design 
and  place  an  order  for  a  number  of  badges.  The  Western  Jeweler  pointed 
out  to  Mr.  Vaughan  that  there  was  no  necessity  for  his  going  abroad  with  his 
favors,  and  the  arguments  brought  to  bear  were  sufficiently  persuasive  to 
cause  Mayor  Vaughan  to  reconsider  his  decision.  The  result  was  that  after 
a  very  satisfactory  interview  with  Messrs.  Juergens  &  Anderson,  a  contract 
was  signed  calling  for  the  delivery  of  one  hundred  thousand  badges,  to  cost 
one  dollar  each.  This  quantity  may  probably  be  quadrupled  within  six 
months. 

"This  badge  is  to  be  worn  by  the  members  of  a  society  that  is  knowue 
as  '  Vaughan  Ex-Slave  Pension  Club.'  The  objects  of  the  association  ar 
to  secure  the  passage  of  a  bill  now  before  Congress  [having  passed  its  second 
reading,  being  introduced  last  session  by  Representative  W.  J.  Connell,  of 
Nebraska,  at  the  request  of  Mayor  Vaughan],  which  will  entitle  all  ex  slaves 
to  certain  pensions.  Branch  clubs  are  now  organized  in  many  of  the  larger 
cities  of  the  Union,  and  it  is  expected  that  in  a  very  short  time  the  member- 
ship list  will  attain  prodigious  dimensions.  The  workmanship  on  the  badge 
is  quite  up  to  the  invariable  standard  of  excellence  of  Messrs.  Juergens  & 
Anderson's  factory,  and  the  firm  are  to  be  congratulated  on  being  lucky 
enough  to  secure  the  contract." 

The  front  of  the  medal  or  badge  will  be  a  face  of  pure  gold,  14  carats  fine, 
with  a  back  of  solid  plating.  The  badge  will  be  worn  only  by  members  of 
the  Associations  in  process  of  formation,  and  which  is  designed  to  work  a 
revolution  in  public  opinion.  A  single  badge  could  not  be  made  for  a  less 
price  than  $5.00,  but  an  order  for  one  hundred  thousand  has  brought  about 
the  low  price  of  one  dollar  each.  The  work  of  the  Vaughan  Pension  Move- 
ment is  going  forward  with  a  will. 

The  associations  alluded  to  are  constitutional  in  their  organization,  and 
their  organism  is  open  to  the  most  rigid  inspection.  At  another  place  in  this 
volume  the  constitution  will  be  found  inserted  in  full.  It  is  certainly  subject 
to  no  captious  objections. 

Form  of  Membership. 

The  following  form  is  recommended  for  immediate  usein  making  applica- 
tion for  the  formation  of  subordinate  orders  of  the  Freedman's  Pension  Asso- 
ciation under  the  National  Order: 


ADDENDA. 


167 


The  undersigned  Colored  Citizens  of  respect- 
fully make  application  for  the  issuance  of  a  charter  for  a  subordinate  order  of 

the  VaugJian  Freedmen's  Pension  Association  to  he  established  at  

 in  the  County  of. . .  and  State  of  


Name. 

Post-0 fflce. 

Age. 

Whether  Former  SlaveorFree 

Until  the  formation  of  the  National  order  at  Washington,  which  may 
necessarily  be  deferred  until  after  the  meeting  of  Congress  in  December,  1891, 
applications  may  be  addressed  to  W.  R.  Vaughan,  at  Chicago,  111.,  who  will 
file  the  same  and  keep  applicants  advised  of  all  movements  in  the  direction 
of  forming  clubs,  and  the  general  work  incident  to  the  welfare  of  the  Freed- 
man's  Pension  Movement. 


AN  APPEAL  LETTER. 

But  few  white  people  in  the  United  States  can  say  that  they  have  not  en- 
joyed profits  from  negro  slave  labor,  either  directly  or  indirectly.  If  you 
have  or  if  you  have  not,  and  you  wish  to  honestly  aid  in  righting  a  great 
wrong,  either  while  living  or  in  your  last  wills,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  you  will 
remember  the  great  work  now  being  done  for  the  ex  slave.  The  author  of  the 
movement  has  spent  $30,000  in  the  cause,  and  will  continue  to  give  his  time 
and  money  thereto  until  death  stops  his  effort.  He  has  resolved  to  establish  a 
national  ex-slaves'  Home,  erect  a  military  or  West  Point  school  for  young 
negro  men.  Will  you  help  him  in  his  work  ?  A  few  hundred  dollars  each, 
contributed  by  those  who  should  be  friendly  to  this  cause,  will  start  the  two 
splendid  institutions  just  mentioned,  and  will  assist  in  the  free  distribution  of 
thousands  of  these  books  to  the  ex-slaves  of  the  South,  who  are  wild  to  get  the 
same  and  cannot  do  so  for  the  want  of  money.  Already  Hon.  Carter  H. 
Harrison,  ex-Mayor  of  Chicago;  Hon.  P.  Kiolbassa,  City  Treasurer  of  Chicago; 
John  M.  Thurston,  and  a  great  many  other  philanthropic  gentlemen,  have 
sent  cash  checks  to  the  author  with  a  view  of  aiding  in  the  distribution  of  this 
book  without  either  endorsing  or  rejecting  the  bill,  but  with  a  view  of  giving 
publicity  to  the  same,  that  the  arguments  therein,  giving  cogent  reasons  why 
the  Government  should  grant  this  pension,  may  be  fully  read  and  considered. 
Will  you  not  follow  the  example  already  set  for  you  by  great  and  good  men, 
and  help  us  in  this  work? 

FORM  OF  BEQUEST. 

I  give  and  bequest  to  W.  R.  Vaughan,  Manager,  the  sum  of  

 Dollars,  to  be  applied  to  the  use  and  purposes  of  buying 

land  for  the  purpose  of  erecting  the  ''Ex-Slaves  National  Home,"  and  the 
''Afro- American  West  Point,"  and  for  which  the  receipt  of  W.  R.  Vaughan 
shall  he  a  sufficient  discharge. 

If  the  above  form  is  used  by  persons  desiring  to  make  bequests  to  this 
worthy  cause,  there  will  be  no  difficulty  or  misunderstanding  as  to  the  inten- 
tion of  the  donor.  Persons  desiring  to  aid  W.  R.  Vaughan  in  his  philanthropic 
work,  will  please  forward  their  contributions  to  W.  R.  Vaughan,  6756  Went- 
worth  Ave.,  Chicago. 


168 


ADDENDA. 


DR.  J.  H.  MAGEE. 

It  would  be  a  pleasure  to  be  able  to  contribute  to  this  volume  such  a  bio- 
graphical sketch  as  tlie  merits  of  the  distinguished  gentleman,  whos^  name 
heads  this  brief  article,  entitles  him  to  receive.  There  is  no  memoranda  at 
hand  to  do  the  subject  justice.  Dr.  Magee  is  a  remarkable  man.  He  is  just 
now  devoting  his  talents  to  the  publication  of  the  Brotherhood,  a  strong 
weekly  journal,  printed  in  Chicago  and  devoted  to  the  interest  of  the  colored 
race.  In  declaring  his  platform,  Dr.  Magee,  with  a  heart  full  of  love  for  all 
good  works  and  the  sources  from  which  they  emanate,  has  put  himself  on 
record  in  these  words: 

''The  Brotherhood,  as  its  name  implies,  devotes  itself  in  part  to  all  frater- 
nal societies,  as  they  exist  among  our  people.  Its  columns  shall  be  opened  to 
tlie  pens  of  the  best  writers  in  all  parts  of  the  Republic,  for  the  (iissemin;»tion 
of  useful  iaformation.  We  ask  the  hearty  co-operation  of  lodges  and  ben  vo- 
lent  societies  in  earnest  support,  and  we  will  give  them  a  paper  to  aid  their 
vast  and  increasing  membership." 

No  person  can  peruse  the  columns  of  the  Brotherhood  without  knowing 
and  feeling  that  the  various  orders  which  that  journal  so  ably  sustains  are 
very  largely  indebted  to  their  society  realm  for  the  propigation  of  good  morals 
and  educational  science  among  the  colored  people.  It  is  in  the  combination 
that  the  societies  have  strength,  and  it  is  through  these  that  su^h  men  as  Dr. 
Magee  are  enabled  to  do  so  much  good  for  the  race  t »  which  they  belong. 
Again  the  Brotherhood  declares  : 

"  We  sliall  hold  up  the  Banner  of  Truth,  which  shall  reflect  the  one  com- 


ADDENDA. 


169 


mon  origin  of  man  in  the  '  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  Brotherhood  of  Man,' 
regardless  of  race,  creed  or  country.  We  wish  to  keep  the  readers  of  the 
Brotherhood  interested  in  timely  topics  of  the  day.  We  will  try  to  please  as  well 
as  instruct,  and  now  we  close  our  editorial  greetings  with  the  earnest  hope  and 
steadfast  faith  that  the  Brotherhood  may  win  for  itself  a  cordial  support  and  a 
wide  field  of  usefulness." 

The  sentiments  declared  in  such  lofty  terms  amply  mark  the  life  and 
character  of  Dr.  J.  H.  Magee.  Of  course  such  a  man  is  a  model  husband,  a 
good  father,  an  excellent  citizen  and  a  pleasurable  companion.  Dr.  Magee  has 
been  a  good  deal  of  a  traveler  in  his  time.  His  education  was  completed  in 
the  City  of  London,  and  thus  by  contact  with  the  people  of  other  lands  and 
climes,  he  has  learned  much  that  can  not  be  imparted  in  the  school  room  or 
from  the  pages  of  a  book.  He  has  used  his  talents  to  excellent  advantage, 
and  with  the  sturdy  honesty  of  his  nature,  he  may  truly  be  called  "an  honest 
man,  the  noblest  work  of  God." 

In  th*e  affairs  of  life  Dr.  Magee  has  been  reasonably  successful.  He 
formerly  resided,  and  still  passes  a  good  part  of  his  time  in  Southern  Illinois. 
He  has  property  interests  at  Metropolis  City,  where  he  is  generally  known 
and  is  greatly  beloved.  Judge  Benjamin  O.  Jones,  of  the  Massac  County 
Court  is  his  especial  friend  and  admirer,  so  that  the  intimate  friendships  of 
the  worthy  doctor  are  not  confined  to  the  black  race  by  any  means.  In  Chi- 
cago, Dr.  Magee  has  purchased  a  home  on  Butterfield  and  47th  streets,  where 
he  is  surrounded  by  an  interesting  family,  and  is  in  the  enjoyment  of  the 
blessings  arising  from  a  conscience  void  of  offense. 

In  public  affairs  he  is  a  prominent  actor  and  wields  a  large  influence. 
Being  an  ardent  Republican,  he  is  naturally  high  in  the  confidence  of  the  best 
men  of  his  party.  He  now  holds  the  office  of  grain  inspector  by  appoint- 
ment of  Governor  Fifer,  and  his  duties  are  discharged  in  a  way  to  secure  the 
good  will  of  business  men  who  come  in  contact  with  him  in  his  official 
relations. 

For  many  years  Dr.  Magee  followed  the  calling  of  a  schoolteacher,  and 
he  has  made  his  impress  upon  the  public  wherever  he  has  taught.  Taken 
all  in  all,  he  is  a  most  valuable  man,  and  one  whom  to  know  is  to  love. 

In  early  life  Dr.  Magee  was  greatly  afflicted  with  necrosis  or  death  of 
the  bone,  from  which  he  suffered  the  tortures  of  almost  death  itself.  He  un- 
derwent a  surgical  operation,  in  which  part  of  the  bone  of  the  left  thigh  and 
the  heel  bone  of  the  right  foot  was  removed.  In  an  acknowledgment  of 
divine  interposition  in  his  restoration  to  robust  health  and  manly  vigor,  he 
wrote  a  book  of  175  pages,  which  he  was  pleased  to  call  "The  night  of  Afflic- 
tion and  Morning  of  Recovery."  This  book  had  an  immense  sale.  The  Dr. 
will  republish  his  book  in  an  enlarged  edition,  giving  important  personal 
reminiscences  of  Hon.  W.  R  Vaughan,  author  of  the  Freedman's  Pension 
bill.  Gov.  Oglesby,  Gov.  Fifer,  Senator  CuUom,  John  A.  Logan,  Col.  Wm.  R. 
Brown  and  others.  Dr.  Magee  is  well  educated  and  enjoys  the  rare  distinc- 
tion of  a  course  of  religious  training  in  Spurgeon's  College,  London,  England, 
also  a  Grammar  school  education  in  Toronto,  Canada.  He  was  a  member 
of  the  Republican  State  Central  Committee  of  Illinois  four  years,  and  is 
regarded  as  one  of  the  best  orators  in  the  State.  His  labors  in  National  and 
State  campaigns  are  very  affective.  He  enjoys  the  acquaintance  and  friend- 
ship of  the  leading  white  men,  as  well  as  a  leader  of  his  race  in  Illinois. 

Dr.  Mafjee  is  a  prominent  member  and  one  of  the  trustees  of  Quinn 
Chapel,  A.  M.  E.  Church,  Chicago;  he  is  also  a  local  elder  in  the  same 
church,  and  an  earnest  worker  in  the  Sunday-schoi- 1.  He  is  one  of  the  trus- 
tees of  Providence  Hospital,  an  institution  under  the  able  management  of 
prominent  colored  men,  of  whom  Dr.  D.  H,  Williams  and  Bishop  John  M. 
Brown  and  others  are  represented  on  the  board  of  management. 

EDWARD  ELDER  COOPER, 

The  gentleman  whose  name  heads  this  brief  biographical  sketch  is  one  of 
the  most  successful  editoriil  writers  who  devotes  his  time  and  talents  to  the 
benefit  of  the  negro  race,  of  which  he  is  a  shining  example.  In  truth  this 
sketch  can  scarcel,y  be  called  a  biography,  for  the  reason  that  the  writer  is 
not  familiar  with  the  youthful  career  of  Mr.  Cooper.    From  a  publication 


170 


ADDENDA. 


made  in  the  New  York  Age  by  Mr.  W.  A.  Sweeney,  it  has  been  learned  that 
Mr.  Cooper  is  a  Southerner  by  birth,  but  that  he  sought  a  home  in  the  North 
at  an  early  age.  He  was  a  hotel  waiter  at  a  Philadelphia  hostelry  in  the 
Centennial  year,  and  after  the  festivities  of  the  memorable  international 
event  which  marked  a  hundred  years  of  American  independence  had  con- 
cluded, Mr.  Cooper  found  it  convenient  to  turn  his  steps  westward.  He 
located  at  Indianapolis,  where  he  entered  school,  and  for  twelve  months 
worked  for  his  board  and  clothing.  He  continued  to  labor  as  he  studied, 
and  finally  graduated  from  the  City  High  School  as  the  sole  colored  matricu- 


EDWARD  ELDER  COOPER. 

late  in  a  class  of  sixty-five  persons.  After  his  graduationkind  friends  secured 
for  him  an  appointment  in  the  railway  mail  service,  where  he  served  four 
years,  retiring  in  1886.  But  while  in  the  postal  service  Mr.  Cooper  joined 
with  Edward  F.  Horn,  formerly  of  Evansville,  and  others  in  the  publication 
of  the  Indianapolis  Worlds  a  weekly  newspaper,  devoted  to  the  interest  of  the 
colored  race,  and  the  propagation  of  the  principles  of  the  Republican  party.  • 
The  World  was  a  successful  business  venture,  but  a  change  of  postal  routes 
obliged  the  temporary  retirement  of  Mr.  Cooper  from  the  newspaper  field. 
When  relieved  from  the  postal  service,  Mr.  Cooper  returned  to  the  World 
enterprise,  but  was  regretful  to  find  that  a  once  prosperous  journal  had  run 
down  from  a  circulation  of  2,000  to  about  500,  and  that  the  business  estab- 


ADDEXDA. 


171 


lishment  was  seriously  involved  in  pecuniary  embarrassment.  He  succeeded 
in  revivino:  thie  business  prosperity  of  the  journal,  and  speedily  placed  it  upon 
a  paying  basis,  After  something  more  than  a  year,  Mr.  Cooper  made  sale  of 
his  interest  in  the  World,  and  July  14,  18SS,  he  began  thi  publication  of  The 
Freeman,  the  only  illustrated  organ  of  the  colored  people  that  has  ever  been 
attempted  in  the  United  States.  The -Freg'/?iart  stands  very  high  in  the  jour- 
nalistic circles  of  Indiana.  It  has  a  vride  circulation,  and  controls  a  vast 
political  influence,  though  it  can  scarcely  be  called  a  political  organ.  It 
leans  toward  the  Republican  vievr  of  political  issues,  but  strikes  sturdy 
blovrs  against  the  policy  of  that  party  whenever  the  manager  does  not  agree 
with  prevailing  methods.'  Mr.  Cooper  has  been  denominated  a  Xegrowump 
in  political  lines,  and  it  is  safe  to  call  him  the  stiSest  kind  of  an  Independent. 
He  exercises  a  glorious  influence  for  the  advancement  and  sturdy  independ- 
ence of  the  Xegro  race. 


HON.   JAS.   A.  HANDY. 

• 

Hon.  James  A.  Handy,  of  Washington,  D.  C,  was  born  in  Maryland, 

the  m'Kher  State  of  many  emi  ipnt  blackmen,  but  barren  in  the  production  of 
great  white  men,  if  we  except  the  late  Hon.  Henry  Winter  Davis  and  the  liv- 
ing Judge  Hucrh  L.  Bond. 

James  A.  Handy,  by  nature,  is  the  peer  of  any,  and  sturdily  stands  to-day 
in  company  with  the  most  advanced  of  the  race.  Reared  in  the  midst  of 
slavery,  he  was  debarred  of  even  the  commonest  school  advantages.  In  his 
own  words,  the  buck  and  saw  were  his  books,  while  the  wood  wharf  was  his 
school-room 

As  a  man,  he  is  characterized  by  a  frankness  and  decision,  which  at 
times  assume  even  an  air  of  rudeness.  He  is,  in  the  broadest  sense,  a  progres- 
sive man:  was  the  first  to  introduce  the  order  of  the  Sons  of  Temperance 
among  his  people  in  Baltimore.  He  has  the  credit  of  ranking  high  in  the 
Masonic  Fra^ernitv.  Last  but  not  least,  he  was  the  Baltimore  agent  of  the 
Underground  Railroad  and  Telegraph  Company  for  the  years  1856.  '57,  '58, 
'59  and  1860,  '61.  He  is  at  this  tune  Secretary  of  Finance  of  the  great  African 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  at  Washington, ^D.  C,  of  which  he  has  been  a 


173 


ADDENDA. 


member  thirty-eight  years.  Mr.  Handy  is  a  large  tax  payer  and  as  a  true 
American  citizen  is  willing  to  see  the  worthy  soldiers  fairly  pensioned,  but 
thinks  it  but  honest  to  deal  justly  with  our  former  slaves. 


Among  the  brightest  and  most  active  intellects  of  the  negro  race  may  be 
safely  classed  the  editor  and  proprietor  of  the  Omaha  Progress,  a  bright  and 
influential  journal  which  has  the  confidence  and  support  of  the  white  and 
black  races.  Mr.  Barnett  first  saw  the  light  of  day  at  Huntsville,  Ala.,  July 
7,  1854.  He  was  born  of  and  reared  by  slave  parents.  When  sixteen  years 
old,  and  after  emancipation  had  become  a  fixed  fact,  he  entered  the  Rusk 
Institute,  where  he  pursued  his  studies  one  year.  His  next  step  in  life  was 
to  procure  additional  scholastic  culture,  and  he  arranged  for  a  night  course 
at  the  Fisk  University,  at  Nashville,  Tenn.,  where  he  had  the  good  fortune 
to  secure  employment  from  Dr.  Greenleaf,  then  in  charge  of  the  U.  S.  Army 
post  at  Nashville.  Mr.  Barnett  attended  night  school  for  a  period  of  four 
years.  After  his  university  course,  Mr.  Barnett  made  his  home  in  Louisville. 
Ky.,  where  he  became  the  steward  of  the  Prentice  Club,  and  continued  in 
service  for  eight  years,  much  to  his  personal  advantage  and  to  the  general 
satisfaction  of  the  club  membership.  He  then  removed  to  Portsmouth,  O., 
where  he  engaged  in  business  pursuits  but  met  with  financial  reverses.  He 
next  took  a  plac*  as  a  laborer,  where  he  wrought  diligently  for  several 
months,  until  his  exchequer  warranted  further  adventure  in  business  for  him- 
self. He  was  married  June  7,  1880,  to  Miss  Alice  Burns,  a  lady  whose 
acquaintance  he  had  made  during  his  residence  at  Louisville.  His  domestic 
life  has  been  one  of  complete  happiness.  Locating  at  Cleveland,  Ohio,  Mr. 
Barnett's  past  experience  enabled  him  to  secure  the  place  of  front  house  man 
in  the  Union  Club,  as  he  was  an  adept  in  club  work.  He  resigned  from  the 
club  to  take  charge  of  the  culinary  department  at  Hatch  &  Thompson's  fash- 
ionable restaurant,  where  he  was  a  prime  favorite  during  a  period  of  four  and  a 
half  years.  Then,  resolved  to  seek  a  home  in  the  West,  he  wended  his  way 
to  Omaha,  Neb.  In  his  new  home  he  first  found  employment  at  the  Omaha 
Club,  but  in  a  short  time  he  took  the  management  of  Irwin's  Gate  City  res- 
taurant. He  retired  from  that  business  to  accept  a  position  as  collector  for 
the  Hussey-Day  Plumbing  Company.  At  a  later  day  he  entered  the  field  of 
journalism  and  began  the  publication  of  the  Omaha  Progress  October  5,  1889, 
of  which  paper  he  is  now  sole  owner.  Mr.  Barnett  has  achieved  a  high  esti- 
mation in  Omaha,  and  is  regarded  as  one  of  the  men  of  influence  of  the  city. 
High  honors  await  him  in  the  future. 


p.  L.  BARNETT. 


ADDENDA. 


ITS 


.JEREMIAH  if.  TVASHIXGTOX,  OF  CHICAGO,  ILL. 

Every  town,  every  city,  every  village  has  its  leader,  and  in  this  the  colored 
race  has  proven  that  they  can  keep  step  to  the  music  of  progress.  The  subject 
of  this  s^ietch  was  born  in.  slavery,  but  was  full  of  push  and  pluck  and  ambi- 
tion. He  has  succeeded  in  giving  himself  a  liberal  education,  and  is  to-day 
regarded  as  one  of  the  ablest  pulpit  orators  in  tlie  country.  He  is  not  only  an 
orator,  but  is  a  leader  and  a  church  buildei,  and  possesse^s  the  personal  mag- 
netism that  carries  the  people  with  him.  Jeremiah  M.  AVashington  was  born 
in  Rockville,  Maryland,  in  1852.  Early  in  life  he  evinced  a  disposition  to 
join  the  church,  and  he  preached  his  first  sermon  in  1874  at  Louisville,  Ky., 
where  he  organized  and  established  Washington  Chapel,  a  local  church,  and 
he  carried  from  this  church  to  his  first  conference  one  hundred  and  eighty 
financial  members.  His  work  from  the  very  start  was  a  success.  He  went 
from  Louisville  to  Madisonville,  Ky.,  and  remained  there  fourteen 
months.  In  this  time  he  rebuilt  the 'church,  and  left  it  in  a  flourish- 
ing condition,  with  one  hundred  and  sixty  active  members.  The  leaders  of 
his  church  had  noticed  his  wonderful  work,  and  in  1877  sent  him  to  St. 
Louis,  Mo.,  and  it  was  here  that  his  most  remarkable  work  was  performed. 
He  was  in  St.  Louis  three  years,  and  in  the  same  time  he  bought  the  ground 
and  built  one  of  the  largest  and  handsomest  churches  in  that  city  (as  in 
Louisville,  he  named  this  church  after  himself — Washington  Chapel),  on 
Morgan  street.  Rev.  J.  C.  Temple  is  the  present  pastor  of  this  church .  He  was 
dubbed  by  the  St.  Louis  newspapers  "  The  Western  Moses,"  and  during  his 
work  in  St.  Louis  he  left  nine  hundred  active  members  to  his  charge.  He 
then  went  to  Knoxville,  Tenn.,  built  one  church  at  this  place,  and  then  to 
Little  Rock,  Ark.  He  remained  there  two  years,  and  then  he  came  to 
Indianapolis  in  1884,  and  was  two  years  at  Jones'  Tabernacle.  Elder  Wash- 
ington has  a  large  following  in  the  church,  and  has  been  elected  general 


lU 


ADDENDA. 


delegate  three  times  at  the  Conference  at  Montgomery,  Ala.,  New  York,  and 
at  New  Berne,  N.  C.  He  was  a  prominent  candidate  for  the  Bishopric^  and 
was  once  nominated  for  that  important  place.  He  located  in  Chicago  the  9th 
of  February  last  and  took  charge  of  Washington  Chapel  in  that  city,  located 
on  Dearborn  street  betwen  Twenty-ninth  and  Thirtieth  streets. 


The  writer  can  speak  of  Dr.  Ricketts,  in  view  of  residence  in  the  same 
city  with  him,  and  hence  for  the  reason  that  he  has  personal  knowledge  of 
the  fact  that  the  doctor  is  highly  respected  in  the  city  of  his  adoption.  He  is 
a  skilled  physician,  and  has  the  professional  sympathy  and  support  of  white 
men  who  pursue  the  scientific  Imes  of  surgery  and  medicine.  Dr.  Ricketts 
was  born  April  3,  1858,  in  Henry  county,  Kentucky,  of  slave  parents.  After 
emancipation  and  the  freedom  of  the  slaves  his  parents  removed  from  Ken- 
tucky to  Missouri.  In  the  home  of  his  adoption  the  lad  was  enabled  to  pro- 
cure a  fair  education,  and  his  scholastic  course  was  completed  by  graduation, 
with  honor  to  himself  and  his  admiring  friends,  at  the  Lincoln  University. 
He  received  his  diploma  with  credit  and  honor  at  the  Commencement  Exer- 
cises of  1876.  Four  years  later  Mr.  Ricketts  took  up  his  residence  in  Omaha, 
where  his  industry  and  economy  enabled  him  to  take  a  full  course  of  three 
years'  study  and  experience  in  the  Omaha  Medical  College.  He  graduated 
with  honor  in  his  class  and  took  up  his  professional  residence  in  the  city  of 
his  adoption.  He  has  secured  a  fine  practice  and  ranks  high  in  the  medical 
fraternity.  White  surgeons  frequently  meet  with  him  in  consultation 
respecting  extreme  cases,  and  have  often  invited  his  diagnosis  of  cases  imme- 
diately under  his  charge.  Dr.  Ricketts  has  taken  an  active  part  in  public 
affairs  and  is  justly  regarded  as  one  of  the  important  factors  in  the  local 
political  situation  of  Omaha  and  Nebraska. 

Bishop  John  M.  Brown  was  born  in  Cantwell's  Bridge,  now  called 
Odessa,  New  Castle  County,  Delaware.  The  Bishop  is  a  man  of  great 
piety  and  energy.  He  believes  that  "what  others  can  do  he  will  do,"  and 
he  generally  succeeds.  He  is  a  great  friend  to  young  men,  always  willing  to 
help  the  man  up  the  hill  of  life  who  is  aspiring  with  honest  aims.  He  is 
both  a  blessing  and  an  inspiration  to  all  among  whom  he  dwells.  He  has 
friends  by  the  thousands,  east,  west,  north  and  south. 


DR.  M.  O.  RICKETTS. 


175 


DANIEL  L.  LAPS  LEY. 

This  gentleman  was  born  of  slave  parents  in  Caldwell  county,  Kentucky, 
November  13,  1833.  In  slave  days  his  mother  was  the  property  of  Rev.  R. 
A.  Lapsley,  a  Presbyterian  clergyman.  The  parents  of  the  subject  of  this 
sketch  were  united  in  wedlock  by  the  master  and  owner  of  the  mother  accord- 
ing to  the  marriage  rites  of  the  Presbyterian  faith.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Lapsley 
having  been  called  to  the  pastorate  of  a  church  at  Nashville,  he  hesitated  to 
separate  a  family  by  taking  a  slave  wife  from  the  household  of  her  husband. 
The  result  was  that  the  woman  and  her  family  were  left  in  Kentucky  under 
a  verbal  agreement  of  the  husband  and  father  to  purchase,  at  a  low  rate  of 
value,  his  wife  and  children.  Unfortunately  in  May,  1846,  the  husband  and 
father  died  before  his  work  of  purchase  was  completed.  Then,  at  the  appeal 
of  the  widowed  mother,  her  former  master,  Rev.  R.  A.  Lapsley,  repurchased 
the  slave  mother  and  children  at  about  double  the  sum  for  which  he  had 
agreed  to  sell  them.    The  venture  seriously  embarrassed  the  devout  pastor, 


DANIEL  L.  LAPSLEY. 

but  his  sons  and  daughters  came  to  his  relief  and  enabled  the  father  to  regain 
a  household  of  servants  which  had  done  much  towards  nursing  and  rearing 
his  own  progeny  in  their  infantile  days.  Daniel  L.  Lapsley,  the  oldest  of 
three  slave  children,  with  their  aged  mother,  became  inmates  of  their  old 
master's  family,  March  10,  1847,  at  Nashville.  In  that  pious  household,  the 
slave  children  were  taught  to  read  and  write,  one  of  their  regular  instructors 
being  J.  W.  Lapsley,  the  master's  second  son,  who  has  subsequently  been  a 
law -partner  of  Senator  John  F.  Morgan,  of  Alabama,  and  who  now  holds  a 
judgship  over  one  of  the  Alabama  courts.  At  the  outbreak  of  the  Great 
Rebellion,  D.  L.  Lapsley,  of  whom  this  sketch  is  written,  with  two 
other  colored  men,  constituted  a  firm  of  barbers  in  Nashville.  He  received 
instruction  in  appropriate  branches  of  learning  thrice  a  week  from  Prof. 
Daniel  Watkins,  pursuant  to  a  private  agreement.  After  the  war  he  became 
a  member  of  the  board  of  education  and  assisted  in  the  appointment  of 
teachers  for  the  first  colored  schools.  He  also  took  an  active  part  in  the  estab- 


ADDENDA. 


lishment  of  the  Baptist  College,  now  known  as  the  Roger  William's  univer- 
sity. He  was  elected  a  justice  of  the  peace  in  1868,  and  again  in  1870.  In 
1873  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  and  began  a  successful  practice  of  the  legal 
profession.  He  served  as  one  of  the  vice-presidents  of  the  colored  State  Con- 
vention at  Memphis,  in  1872.  In  January,  1890,  Mr.  Lapsley  became  a  citizen 
of  Omaha,  Neb.,  where  he  now  resides.  He  is  a  valuable  citizen  and  is  doing 
all  in  his  power  to  elevate  the  standard  of  his  race,  North  and  South. 
Wherever  known,  Mr.  Lapsley  commands  the  admiration,  respect  and  con- 
fidence of  his  white  fellows-citizens.  Integrity  and  honor  are  regarded  as 
unimpeachable  traits  of  his  personal  character. 

Hon.  John  G.  Jones,  of  Chicago,  Illinois,  was  born  on  the  eighteenth  day 
of  September,  1849,  in  the  City  of  Ithaca,  Tompkins  county.  State  of  New 
York.  At  the  age  of  ten  years  he  emigrated  to  the  City  of  Chicago  and  has 
been  a  permanent  resident  ever  since.  He  has  advanced  thus  far  in  life  by 
his  energy,  determination  and  ambition,  and  to  day  commands  the  respect  of 
the  most  distinguished  men,  both  black  and  white,  throughout  the  couutry. 
On  the  recommendation  of  the  late  Hon.  John  A.  Logan,  Senator  of  Illinois, 
President  U.  S.  Grant,  in  1873,  appointed  him  U.  S.  Commissioner  to  the 
Island  of  Cuba  to  investigate  the  report  as  to  whether  colored  people  had  been 
captured  on  the  coast  of  Florida  and  taken  to  Cuba  and  sold  as  slaves.  The 
reason  Mr.  Jones  did  not  go  was  because  it  was  soon  found  out  by  the  American 
Government  that  the  matter  had  been  amicably  settled. 

From  early  boyhood  he  possessed  the  irresistible  desire  to  become  a  law- 
yer. He  commenced  the  study  of  law  when  he  was  a  young  man  under  the 
instruction  of  the  late  W.  W.  O'Brien,  Illinois'  famous  criminal  lawyer;  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  to  practice  in  all  courts  in  1883,  and  is  recognized  to  be  a 
clear-headed  lawyer  and  a  forcible  and  eloquent  speaker.  He  is  plain,  bold 
and  outspoken  in  his  views  on  all  questions;  he  is  one  of  the  leading  coloied 
masons  of  America,  having  advanced  to  the  33d  degree,  and  is  now  the  Lieu 
tenant  Commander  of  the  Supreme  Council  of  the  Ancient  and  Scottish  Riie 
Masonry  of  the  United  States.  Mr.  Jones  has  done  many  acts  to  advance  the 
best  interests  of  his  race  of  people,  which  long  will  be  remembered  in  the 
hearts  of  his  fellow  countrymen. 

Col.  Alex,  A.  Jones,  was  born  in  Wilmington,  North  Carolina, 
February  14th,  1852.  He  was  born  a  slave,  went  with  his  parents  to  Boston 
in  1859,  attended  the  Phillip  School  in  the  west  end  of  Boston  two  years. 
In  1864  entered  the  army.  After  the  close  of  the  war  he  returned  to 
North  Carolina.  He  is  well  known  in  Virginia,  Washington,  D.  C,  Indiana, 
Mianesota  and  Iowa.  Col.  Jones  has  always  been  a  Republican  and  has  done 
good  work  for  his  party.  In  businessprompt,  faithful,  accurate;  as  a  jouinalist, 
vivid,  bright,  animating,  strong.  As  one  of  the  leaders  of  his  race  he  i's  true  as 
steel.  He  is  one  of  Nature's  born  orators,  and  leaves  an  impression  upon  his 
hearers.  As  a  member  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  he  commanded 
two  Posts,  one  in  Boston  and  one  in  Indiana.  Was  selected  on  Department 
Commander  Chase's  staff ,  of  the  State  of  Indiana.  He  has  been  In  and  filled 
with  credit,  places  of  trust  in  the  post-office  at  Boston,  Mass.,  in  Custom 
Department,  also  in  the  Pension  office;  is  one  of  the  most  promirent  and  suc- 
cessful workers  of  the  African  M.  E.  Church,  a  man  who  never  tires  working 
for  his  race. 

Rev.  Geo.  W.  Gaines  was  born  in  Missouri,  and  might  be  termed  a 
self-made  man.  His  work  among  his  race  has  been  crowned  with  much 
success.  He  was  elected  a  delegate  to  the  National  Convention  from  Mis- 
souri in  1884.  He  is  a  faithful  minister  of  the  gospel.  He  was  appointed  to 
the  pastorate  of  Bethel  Church,  Chicago,  in  1889,  and  reappointed  in  1891 
to  the  same  charge;  and  elected  almost  unanimously  by  the  Iowa  Conftr- 
ence  to  represent  the  convention  in  the  General  Conference  to  be  held  in 
Philadelphia  in  1892  Elder  Gaines  was  a  slave  and  had  but  few  advan 
tages,  but  to  see  and  talk  with  him  you  would  pronounce  him  a  pro- 
fessor of  theology. 


177 


Hon.  F.  L.  Barnett,  is  a  prominent  man  in  social  and  political  circles. 
He  is  an  able  lawyer,  and  editor  of  the  Gonsermtor — the  oldest  negro  journal 
in  the  United  States.  Judge  Barnett  is  as  true  as  steel  to  a  friend.  He  has  a 
very  valuable  law  practice  and  is  remarkably  successful. 

C.  F,  Adams  is  one  of  the  editors  and  owners  of  the  Appeal,  one  of  the 
best  known  Afro-American  illustrated  weekly  journals  in  America.  He  spent 
some  years  abroad  in  the  study  of  the  German  language,  in  which  he  is  very 
proficient.  Mr  Adams  has  a  great  many  friends;  he  is  a  strong  writer  and 
the  Appeal,  his  paper,  has  a  large  circulation. 

We  could  write  for  a  month  about  remarkable  negro  men  and  women,  for- 
mer slaves,  who  have  developed  within  the  last  twenty-five  years,  with  but  little 
m  )ney  and  help  in  life's  struggles  to  aid  them,  and  who  now  rank  as  the 
equal,  and  many  superior,  in  their  respective  professions  to  their  white 
brethren,  who  were  educated  and  cared  for  with  the  proceeds  of  negro  labor, 
but  space  and  time  forbid  further  mention  or  extended  notices,  that  in  our 
future  editions  of  this  book  will  receive  our  careful  attention. 


Council  Bluffs,  Iowa,  August  27,  1891. 

To  those  interested: 

We  have  known  Hon.  W.  R.  Yaughan  for  many  years.  He  was  mayor 
of  Council  Bluffs,  Iowa,  part  of  five  years,  and  curator  of  Iowa  two  years. 
In  1884  he  had  in  New  York  several  hundred  thousand  dollars  of  Council 
Bluff  bonds,  with  full  written  authority  to  sell  the  same  at  such  price  as  he 
thought  best.  The  only  bond  over  him  was  his  ofiicial  bond  of  $3,000. 
He  sold  the  bonds  at  par  and  accrued  interest,  and  with  the  proceeds  put 
down  some  twelve  miles  of  paving.  We  have  always  regarded  Mayor 
Yaughan  as  upright,  honest,  and  as  true  as  steel  to  his  friends,  or  a  cause 
championed  by  him.  Since  his  first  residence,  in  1869,  with  us  he  has  been 
the  poor  man's  friend,  white  or  black,  and  we  are  satisfied  that  his  Ex-Slave 
Pension  bill  and  its  cause  will  always  be  handled  with  sincerity  and  fidelity. 
We  can  and  do  cheerfully  endorse  him  as  a  man  of  brains,  honor  and  irre- 
pressibility,  and  fully  entitled  to  your  confidence  and  respect. 


178 


ADDENDA. 


Omaha,  Neb  ,  August  28,  1891. 

To  the  Public:  Hon.  W,  R.  Vaughan,  the  aulhoi  of  the  Ex-Slave  Pen- 
sion Bill  introduced  iu  the  fifty-first  congress,  has  been  a  resident  (  f  Omaba 
since  1886.  We  cheerfully  concur  in  the  letter  of  Mayor  Macrae,  and  others 
of  Council  Bluffs,  Iowa,  dated  August  27th. 

Mayor  Vaughan  is  upright,  honest  and  competent  to  consummate  any  of 
his  undertakings.  We  recommend  and  endorse  him  as  in  every  way  worthy 
of  your  confidence. 


Chicago,  III.,  June,  1891. 

To  Our  Republican  Friends. 

Qentlemeii:  The  bearer,  Hon.  W.  R.  Vaughan,  Ex-Mayor  of  Council 
Bluffs,  Iowa,  a  resident  of  Omaha,  is  the  author  of  the  Ex  Slave  Pension  bill 
introduced  in  the  51st  Congress.  We  take  pleasure  in  introducing  and  com- 
mending him  to  your  favor.  His  novel  undertaking  has  attracted  Press, 
Public  and  individual  attention  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  ocean.  Mr. 
Vaughan  is  a  Virginian  by  birth  and  a  Democrat,  but  his  pension  movement 
is  in  no  way  political,  that  is  unless  a  candidate  is  nominated  by  some  party 
that  openly  admits  his  opposition  to  the  bill.  We  think,  however,  that  the 
work  is  in  line  with  Republican  ideas,  and  as  those  whom  the  measure  will 
benefit  are  mostly  Republicans,  we  trust  you  will  render  Mr.  Vaughan  all 
possil)le  aid.    By  so  doing  you  will  please  us. 

Very  respectfully, 


ADDENDA. 


179 


SEMIANNUAL  COUNCIL  OF  THE  BISHOPS  OF  THE   AFRICAN   M.  E.  CHURCH  OF 
THE  UNITED  STATES,  HELD  AT  CHICAGO,  ILL.,  JUNE  1891. 

The  foUowiDg  is  a  true  copy  of  the  report  of  the  committee  appointed  by 
the  Board  of  Bishops,  in  official  session  at  Chicago,  III.,  June  25th,  1891. 
The  report  was  duly  adopted. 

We,  your  committee,  to  whom  was  referred  the  subject  of  Freedmen's 
Pension  Bill,  as  presented  by  the  Hon.  W.  R.  Vaughan: 

After  due  consideration  and  examination  do  most  heartily  commerd  the 
plan,  and  will  use  our  influence,  to  have  every  person  entitled  to  it,  have  a 
just  pension. 


Whereas,  Hon  W.  R.  Vaughan  has  introduced  to  the  Conference  his  bill 
now  pending  in  the  United  States  Congress;  therefore,  be  it 

Resolved,  That  we,  the  Conference,  do  hereby  indorse  said  bill,  and 
further,  that  it  be  affixed  to  the  report  on  Sta'e  of  Country. 

Adopted  by  Iowa  Annual  Conference  A.  M.  E.  Church,  Chicago,  111., 
September  1st. 


Lincoln,  April  9th,  1891. 

To  the  State  and  City  Officials:  The  bearer  of  this,  Hon.  W.  R.  Vaughan, 
has  been  a  resident  of  Nebraska,  for  the  past  five  years.  I  have  had  an  inti- 
mate personal  acquaintance  with  him  for  several  years  previous,  while  he  was 
a  resident  of  Council  Blulls,  Iowa,  of  which  city  he  was  at  one  time  Mayor. 

Lately,  he  has  been  publishing  a  Democratic  paper  in  Omaha.  Mr. 
Vaughan  is  a  staunch  Democrat,  a  genial  companion,  and  an  intelligent  gen- 
tlemen; I  take  great  pleasure  in  giving  him  this  letter  of  commendation,  and 
in  wishing  him  success  in  all  his  undertakings. 

Very  Respectfully, 


180 


ADDENDA. 


UNION  PACIFC  SYSTEM,  LAW  DEPARTMENT. 

Omaha,  Neb.  June  22,  1891. 
To  My  Brother  BepuUicans:  Col.  W.  R.  Vaughan  is  engaged  in  the 
publication  of  a  very  valuable  book  ,  especially  designed  for  the  benefit  of 
the  colored  race.  Although  a  staunch  democrat,  Col.  Vaughan  holds  very 
high  and  correct  opinions  upon  the  political  questions  affecting  the  colored 
people,  and  I  cordially  recommend  his  work  to  the  Republicans  of  the 
United  States. 

I  also  take  pleasure  in  recommending  Col.  Vaughan  as  a  worthy  gentle- 
man and  good  citizen.      Respectfully  submitted, 


Omaha,  Neb.,  July  21,  1890. 

Hon.  W.  R.  Vaughan. 

Dear  Sir:  I  received  the  papers  which  you  sent  to  me.  *  *  *  You 
know  my  sentiments  with  regard  to  the  colored  people,  and  that  I  have  a 
very  hearty  sympathy  for  the  cause  which  you  have  so  unselfishly  undertaken. 
With  best  wishes  for  your  success,  I  am 

Very  truly  yours, 

Ex-Mayor  of  Omaha. 
Chicago,  July  16,  1891. 

Hon.  W.  R.  Vaughan. 

Bear  Sir :  When  you  first  presented  your  Freedman's  Pension  Bill  to  me 
I  thought  it  a  wild  scheme  and  not  worthy  of  consideration  ;  but,  after  hear- 
ing you  fully  on  the  subject  and  considering  your  arguments  carefully,  I  must 
confess  that  I  see  merit  in  it. 

Yours  very  truly, 


ST.  FRANCIS  XAVIER'S  CHURCH. 

Council  Bluffs,  Ia.,  Aug,  25,  1891. 
To  the  Catholics  of  the  United  States  : 

The  Honorable  W.  R.  Vaughan,  author  of  the  Ex-Slave  Pension  Bill  and 
book,  has  been  a  resident  of  Council  Bluffs,  Iowa,  and  its  chief  executive 
otficer  for  a  number  of  years.  Mayor  Vaughan  has  always  been  a  friend  to 
our  people,  and  during  the  suffering  in  Ireland  in  1879,  he  was  the  first  to  aid 
us  in  shipping  several  cars  of  provisions  to  Ireland.  I  have  never  called  on 
him  to  aid  our  church,  fairs,  etc.,  in  vain.  He  is  my  personal  friend,  and  any 
favors  shown  him  will  be  highly  appreciated  and  reciprocated  by  me. 


ADDENDA. 


181 


Chicago,  June  29,  1891. 
To  Whom  It  May  Concern:  I  have  known  Mr.  W.  R.  Vaughan  for  a 
number  of  years  and  am  much  interested  in  his  proposed  work,  though  I  can 
not  say  that  I  have  had  suflScient  time  to  examine  the  scheme  to  give  it  my 
entire  approval.  However,  I  am  thoroughly  convinced  of  his  earnestness  and 
honesty  of  purpose  and  cordially  commend  him  to  those  whom  he  may  meet. 

Yours  Respectfully, 


Detroit,  Mich.,  August  12th,  1891. 

Dear  Sir:  I  hope  you  will  receive  from  me  an  apology  for  not  having 
written  you  the  letter  I  fully  intended  to,  but  I  lost  your  address  and  the  work 
of  the  encampment  so  absorbed  my  thought  that  I  was  unable  to  attend  to 
anything  else.  Of  course  I  am  one  of  those  who  wish  to  see  the  negro 
thoroughly  cared  for,  but  whether  money  paid  would  be  as  well  for  him  as  an 
education  offered  him  is  a  problematical  question. 

I  confess  the  question  is  so  vast  that  I  have  not  had  the  time  to  give  it 
the  thought  I  would  like  to  do.  Am  buried  in  work  that  has  accumulated 
during  the  encampment,  which,  as  I  said  before,  has  taken  all  my  thought  for 
the  past  month.  Sincerely  Yours, 


Office  of  Chairman  Committee,  Manufacturing  and  Commerce. 

*  Lincoln.  Neb.,  June  18,  1891. 

HoN.W.  R.  Vaughan,  Chicago,  111. 

3Iy  Bear  Mayor:  I  have  written  an  article  on  your  great  and  meritorious 
work  of  pensioning  those  of  the  colored  race  now  living  in  the  United 
States  who  were  once  held  in  involuntary  servitude  under  the  laws  of  this 
country.  I  earnestly  hope  that  your  great  work  is  meeting  with  that  sup- 
port and  approval  which  your  undertaking  merits.  Negro  slavery  was 
either  right  or  wrong.  It  was  declared  wrong — it  was  wrong.  The 
declaration  on  the  part  of  the  Government  that  it  was  wrong  was  a  confes- 
sion on  behalf  of  the  people  of  the  United  States;  and  that  confession  sim- 
ply means  that  the  negro  people  are  human  beings  and  that  they  are  entitled 
to  a  just  and  fair  compensation  from  the  Government  for  the"  time  during 
which  they  were  held  in  slavery  and  made  the  subject  of  taxation  as  well  as 
the  basis  of  representation.  This  is  an  unanswerable  conclusion.  It  is  a 
logical  and  a  mathematical  deduction,  and  the  fact  that  long  delayed  but  only 
partial  justice  was  done  by  the  emancipation  of  negro  slaves  in  the  United 
States  should  not  be  dignified  as  an  argument,  but  rather  as  a  subterfuge,  why 
they  are  not  entitled  to  a  fair  and  just  compensation  from  the  Government  for 
the  time  in  which  they  were  held  in  bondage. 

The  disenthralled  four  millions  of  blacks  went  forth  from  the  plantations 
and  prison  pens  of  the  South  like  so  many  penitentiary  convicts  who  have 
either  been  pardoned  or  whose  terms  of  punishment  have  expired — with  this 
difference,  however;  the  negro  ex-slave  bore  not  the  stain  of  crime  when  he 
went  forth  into  a  new  world  to  make  his  own  way,  yet  he  was  beset  by  the 


182 


ADDENDA. 


same  obstacles,  impediments  and  opposition  to  his  own  advancement,  in  as 
great  a  degree  as  those  which  ever  confronted  an  ex-convict  emerging  from 
merited  punishment.  The  cases  are  numerous  wherein  persons  unjustly  con- 
victed and  imprisoned  have  recovered  damages  and  compensation  from  the 
State  which  suffered  such  injustice  to  be  done.  Why  should  not  this  rule 
apply  to  all  alike,  regardless  of  the  color  of  the  skin?  Your  position  and 
attitude  with  reference  to  the  race  which  you  are  so  philanthropically 
befriending  is  absolutely  impregnable.  Again  wishing  you  great  success,  I 
remain  the  friend  of  yourself  and  yours, 


State  Senator. 

HEADQUARTERS  DEMOCRATIC  STATE  CENTRAL  COMMITTEE. 

Omaha,  Neb.,  May  27,  1891. 

To  Our  Democratic  Friends. 

Oentlemen:  The  bearer,  Hon.  W,  R.  Vaughan,  ex-mayor  of  Council 
Bluffs,  Iowa,  a  resident  of  Omaha  for  several  years,  now  president  of  the 
Democrat  Pub.  Co.,  is  the  author  of  the  Ex-Slave  Pension  Bill  introduced  in 
the  Fifty-first  Congress.  We  take  pleasure  in  introducing  and  recommend- 
ing him  to  your  favor.  His  novel  undertaking  has  attracted  press,  public 
and  individual  attention  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Mr.  Vaughan 
is  a  Virginian  by  birth  and  a  true  democrat.  We  hope  and  ask  that  you  ren- 
der him  all  possible  assistance.    By  doing  so  you  will  please  us. 

Very  respectfully. 


(Ecdor  Will, 


/^^^  M^^u"^^  ^^^'^ 

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/huec^  n<^^Cu<J<:hu-      ^c(A^  n^u^  ^^^^ 


c<rz^         ff  /Fi^^  ^f-^^ 

/"^U^O/  ^  ^^^^  Aj      /^<r-^  (r.CcL/U£^  A,  J^a^  irjc, 

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C(/UC^Z^    ^tU^i^    ^<^pi<J^   ^Co^  ^■6^^/^^<^<^^^ 

^^^^^  ^^^  ^ 


ADDEXDA. 


185 


^  ^^tt-^^w-  M--<^»  ^'^^^^ 

(iUciZi^,a^  Lrv^%  (^2^.7^^ 

esx^C^c        f&jL4j>^  yte>^  ir-iJK  /^'^tj'^ft^^. 


ADDEKDA. 


/Ax-J-^  l^^FFt      .^J^a^    ^Zo-^  7^ 

/4e^  ^^^i^   ^/-^^^    ^>'21<^  ^ 


ADDENDA. 


187 


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190 


ADDEN^DA. 


LETTER  OF  THANKS,  ETC. 

I  have  been  and  am  being  favored  by  so  many  who  feel  an  interest  in 
my  work,  seeking  to  right  the  Nation's  wrong  perpetrated  on  the  negro  race, 
that  I  hardly  know  who  to  or  how  to  express  my  appreciation  for  the  kindness 
shown.  I  Trill  say,  however,  in  behalf  of  9,000,000  negroes,  that  such  sym- 
pathy and  acts  of  brotherly  justice  will  surely  redound  to  your  future  happi- 
ness and  welfare,  and  will  never  be  forgotten  by  the  present  and  future  gen- 
erations. I  desire  to  especially  thank  the  following  gentlemen  for  valuable 
courtesies  extended: 

Hon.  P.  E.  Studebaker,  treasurer  and  business  manager  of  the  well- 
known  Studebaker  Brothers'  Manufacturing  Company,  a  firm  that  has  done 
more  to  help  the  farmer  and  laborer  than  most  any  business  men  known  to 
the  author.  Studebaker  Brothers  have  a  national  reputation  as  philanthrop- 
ists; they  have  given  thousands  of  dollars  for  the  erection  of  churches  and 
benevolent  inititutions, 

P.  S.  Eustis,  general  passenger  and  ticket  agent  of  the  Chicago,  Burling- 
ton &  Quincy  railroad,  has  also  placed  the  author  of  this  book  and  Ex-Slave 
Pension  bill  under  lasting  obligations.  Mr.  Eustis  is  a  born  railroad  man, 
quick  to  care  for  the  interest  of  his  company,  liberal  in  his  ideas,  and  thoughts 
broad  enough  to  grasp  the  fact  that  the  friendship  of  9,000,000  of  negroes 
for  the  Burlington  system  would  prove  beneficial  to  the  stockholders  of  his 
company.  With  George  W.  Holdredge  as  general  manager  of  the  Burling- 
ton, at  Omaha,  Neb.,  a  company  with  which  he  has  been  connected  for  almost 
twenty  years,  and  to  which  he  is  wedded  in  body  and  soul,  the  interest  of  this 
splendid  company  will  not  be  neglected  in  the  hands  of  two  men  so  competent 
and  broadgauged  as  Holdredge  and  Eustis.  George  M.  Clark,  of  the  firm  of 
George  M.  Clark  &  Co.,  whose  factory  and  salesrooms  are  on  Superior  street, 
Chicago,  feels  a  deep  interest  in  the  negro  race  and  the  proposed  Ex-Slave 
Pension  bill.  He  and  his  partners  have  extended  courtesies  and  favors  to  us 
for  which  we  will  ever  feel  grateful.  James  Barker,  general  passenger  agent 
of  the  grand  old  Monon  Railway  Company,  has  a  great  future  before  him  as 
a  railroad  man.  He  works  very  hard  in  the  interest  of  his  company.  We 
are  indebted  to  him  for  valuable  favors.  Messrs.  Juergens  &  Anderson,  the 
old,  popular  diamond  house  of  State  street,  Chicago,  are  the  gentlemen  who 
have  the  contract  for  making  the  Ex-Slave  Pension  Club  gold  emblem  badge. 
Their  word  and  work  are  absolutely  reliable,  and  the  interest  they  have  taken 
in  our  movement  is  very  gratifying. 

The  A.  N.  Kellogg  Newspaper  Company,  the  Western  Newspaper  Union 
Company  and  the  Chicago  Newspaper  Union  Company  are  each  managed 
and  controlled  by  first-class  oflacers.  Through  their  aid  in  supplying  auxiliary 
sheets  throughout  the  United  States  to  publishers,  hundreds  of  newspapers 
have  been  established  that  otherwise  could  not  have  existed,  and  Afro-Amer- 
ican newspapers  can  easily  be  established  chiefly  through  this  system.  We 
are  under  obligations  to  all  three  of  these  firms.  Hon.  E.  St.  John,  General 
Manager  of  the  C.  R.  I.  &  P.  Railway;  F.  A.  Miller,  Assistant  General  Pas- 
senger and  Ticket  Agent  C.  M.  &  St.  P.  Railway  ;  O.  W.  Ruggles,  General 
Passenger  and  Ticket  Agent  Michigan  Central;  D.  I.  Roberts,  Assistant  Gen- 
eral Passenger  Agent  Erie  Railway,  and  J.  C.  Tucker,  General  Northern 


ADDEXDA. 


191 


Agent  of  the  Big  Four  Route,  have  each  placed  the  author  under  obligations 
for  courtesies  extended,  for  -^hich  the  friends  of  the  Ex-Slave  Pension  Bill, 
as  well  as  the  author  of  this  Book  and  Bill,  will  ever  feel  grateful,  and  be 
ready  to  reciprocate.  In  fact,  there  are  hundreds  who  have  manifested 
kindness  and  friendship,  that  we  cannot  in  this  issue  mention  individually. 

In  conclusion,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  if  the  reader  has  perused  without  preju- 
dice the  pages  in  this  little  volume,  his  judgment  of  honesty  and  right 
will  let  his  influence  and  voice  be  instrumental  in  securing  the  passage  of  the 
"  Yaughan  Ex-Slave  Pension  Bill,"  that  the  wrongs  of  a  nation  may  be  partly 
righted.  The  time  has  come  when  by-gones  should  be  by-gones  and  sympa- 
thetic spirits  and  human  companionship  should  unite  together  for  righting 
the  greatest  wrong  which  is  recorded  in  the  history  of  civilization.  The  day 
of  real  Negro  Freedom  is  drawing  near. 


Purchase  Your  Tickets 

VIA  THK 


Through  Trains  from  NEW  YORK,  BOSTON,  PHILADELPHIA,  Etc.,  connect  in 
Union  Depots  at  CHICAGO,  PEORIA  ^ndST.  LOUIS  with  daily 
trains  running  over  the  '*  Burlington  Route  "  to 

DENVER,  OMAHA,  CHEYENNE,  DEADWOOD,  KANSAS  CITY, 
ST.  PAUL  AND  MINNEAPOLIS, 

~  WITHOUT  CHANGE  OF  CARS  — 

At  its  Western  Terminals  it  also  connects  in  Union  Depots  with  daily  through  trains 

yia  the  various  routes  for 
SAN  FRANCISCO,  LOS  ANGELES.SALT  LAKE,  CITY  OF  MEXICO, 
YOSEMITE  VALLEY, 

 And  all  Points  in  

COLORADO  and  on  the  PACIFIC  COAST 

At  its  Northwestern  terminals  it  again  connects  in  Union  Depots 
with  daily  trains  for 

PORTLAND,  YELLOWSTONE  PARK,  VICTORIA  AND 
PUGET  SOUND  POINTS. 


Are  run  via  the  Burlington  Route  to  Omaha,  Council  Bluffs,  Denver,  Kansas  City, 
Atchison,  and  St.  Joseph,  equipped  with 
THROUGH  SLEEPING  CARS.  RECLINING  CHAIR  CARS,  DINING  CARS  AND  COACHES. 

The  above  Route  is  the  line  selected  by  the  United  States  Government  to  carry  the 
Fast  Mail.  It  is  the  only  line  running  Sleeping  Cars  between  Chicago  and  Denver  over 
its  own  lines.  It  is  the  only  Double-Tracked  Railroad  between  Chicago  and  the  Mis- 
sissippi River. 

For  full  and  complete  information  regarding  the  Burlington  Route,  C.  B.  &  Q.  R.  R., 
call  on  any  coupon  ticket  agent  of  its  own  or  connecting  lines,  or  address 

IP.  S.  ETUSTIS, 

General  Passenger  and  Ticket  Agent,       ....       CHICAGO,  ILL 


Date  Due 

